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When we talk about verb tenses there are 3 times: the past, present and future. Each of these times has 4 aspects: - Simple form - Continues form - Present form - Present continues form This unit covers the 4 present tenses: 1. The present simple. A. Form Affirmative: subject + base form of verb (+ -s or -es) Negative: subject + do/does + not + base form of verb Question: do/does + subject + base form of verb B. Usages: - habitual and routine actions - permanent situations and facts - commentaries - newspaper headlines - direction and instructions - present stories - historical sequences. 2. The present continuous (present progressive) A. Form Affirmative: subject + aux. verb be + verb+ing Negative: subject + aux. verb be + not + verb+ing Question: aux. verb be + subject + verb+ing B. Usages: - When we talk about an action that is in progress at the time of speaking. - When we talk about a temporary action that is not necessarily in progress at the time of speaking. - To emphasis very frequent actions. - To describe background events in a present story. - To describe developing situations. - To refer to a regular action around a point in time. Note: many beginners have problems with the contracted form and often use the present continuous with non-progressive verbs when they should use the present simple instead. 3. The present perfect Relates the past to the present A. Form Affirmative: subject + aux. verb have + past particle Negative: subject + aux. verb have + not + past particle Question: aux. verb have + subject + past particle B. Usages: - When we talk about finished action or states that happened at an indefinite time. It refers to general experiences without specific detail. - When we are thinking about completed past actions carried out in an unfinished time period at the time of speaking. - When we talk about something which began in the past and is still true now at the time of speaking. We don’t know if it is likely to continue in the future or not. - When we describe past actions with present results. Note: We use ‘for’ for periods of time and ‘since’ to indicate a point in time. Also, been indicates an action has finished and gone indicates the action has not been finished. We can use this form to indicate how many things we have done 4. The present perfect continuous Implies that either the activity is likely to continue in the future or that the activity was in progress for some length of time or both. The emphasis is on the action or activity not the result. A. Form Affirmative: subject + aux. verb have + been + verb+ing Negative: subject + aux. verb have + not + been + verb+ing Question: aux. verb have + subject + been + verb+ing B. Usages: - To communicate an incomplete or ongoing activity, when we want to say how long it has continued. - To describe a recently finished, uninterrupted activity which has a present result. Note: A mistake students frequently make is to use verbs that don’t take the continues form (non-progressive verbs). Also, the emphasis is on the action or activity not the result. We do not use this form the communicate the number of things we have done, instead we would use the present perfect form. Every aspect of this unit was very useful. Of course, I already knew all the discussed tenses, but sometimes it was hard to explain the usage etc. of each tense to my students in a concise way. Now this should be a lot easier. Also, the common mistakes are mistakes I heard many of my lower level students makes and it will be easier to correct these from now on. The activities listed for each tense are extremely useful as well. I have used several in the past which was a nice confirmation for myself that I was using appropriate activities to teach the tenses, but I also gained a lot of new ideas. Now I can offer my students an even wider range of fun and interesting activities during the activate stage of my lessons.