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This unit discussed the present tense of the English language. While it was noted that there is contention on exactly how many actual tenses occur in English, the unit focuses on the current teaching mindset that there are twelve tenses in English and that the present tense has four subcategories: simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous. The present simple tense is used to indicate routine actions, permanent situations, commentaries, instructions, newspaper headlines, present stories, and historical sequences. It is the easiest form of the present tense, but does have some rules and exceptions. For third person singular forms, most verbs have an “s” added to the end, but if the verb ends in a consonant and a “y,” then the “y” is changed to an “i” and the letters “es” are added. Additionally, if the verb ends with “o, s, z, x, ch, or sh” then the letters “es” are added to the end and an extra syllable is pronounced. Common mistakes for learners are knowing how to correctly conjugate the verbs using the various pronouns and when to apply the special rules. The present continuous is sometimes referred to as the present progressive tense. It is formed by using the present simple tense of the auxiliary verb “to be” along with the present participle of the main verb. For example, if the main verb was “walk,” the present participle of “walk” is “walking” and transforming it into the present continuous tense adds the “to be” present simple tense of “am” to create “I am walking.” Contractions are commonly used in the this tense and students should be taught how to use them correctly through drilling, if necessary. This tense indicates an action that is currently in progress, a temporary action not necessarily still occurring, to emphasize extremely frequent actions, background events in a present story, to describe a developing situation, or refer to a regular action at a point of time. The present perfect relates the past to the present. It is commonly used by native speakers, but can be difficult to new learners. This tense is created by adding “have” or “had” depending on the noun or pronoun before a regular verb that has been modified to become the past participle. For example, in the sentence “I have snowboarded” the present perfect tense addition of the auxiliary verb “have” corresponds to the pronoun “I” and the regular verb “snowboard” is modified by adding “ed” to the end creating the present perfect tense “snowboarded.” This rule works only for regular verbs. There are irregular verbs which must be memorized because they do not follow this rule. For example, the verb “give” has the past participle of “given.” Again contractions are used often when the tense is used and can be a difficult concept for learners. Other rules for the words “since” and “for” and “gone” and “been” also exist that help define more precisely what is meant. The present perfect continuous relates past activities to the present and should not be confused with the present perfect tense. This tense implies that the activity is likely to continue, the activity was in progress for some time, or both. It is created by adding the auxiliary verb “have” to the present participle form of another verb. For example, “I have been dreaming.” This tense is used to denote an incomplete and ongoing activity and to describe a recently finished activity with a present result. When using this tense, the emphasis is on the activity or action and not the result or completed result.