The Present Tenses

Fixed arrangements for the future – I’m getting married in July.

Temporary events – He’s living in Wales for the moment.

To complain, or emphasize continuous behaviour with words like ‘always’, ‘forever’ and ‘constantly’ – You are always leaving your socks on the floor!

 

Stative Verbs

There are some verbs we cannot use in the continuous tense. These are called stative verbs. Stative verbs refer to states, feelings, or senses rather than actions. In these cases, we use the present simple instead. Here are some examples of stative verbs:

Present Continuous Activity

Take a look at this picture below. Can you describe what is happening using the present continuous? We’ll post an answer key at the end of this blogpost.
*Remember if it’s a stative verb to use present simple instead.

3. Present Perfect Simple

The present perfect simple is used to connect the past to the present. The time of the action is often unspecified, and the focus is more on the result rather than the action. Let’s look at the form:

Form

Use the auxiliary verb have + the past participle of the main verb.
The past participle of regular verbs end in -ed, for verbs like walked, played, looked and watched. But there are lots of irregular verbs – for example, been (be), eaten (eat), made (make), gone (go), got (get), given (give), read (read), said (say), taken (take).
Note that in 3rd person, we use “has” instead of “have”.

Uses & Examples

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  Actions that start in the past and continue to the present – I’ve lived here for 3 years.
  
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  Life experiences, at an unspecified time in the past – I’ve swum with dolphins.
  
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  Repeated action in an unspecified time period – I’ve visited the Eiffel Tower three times.
  
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