How do you form the present tense in English?

Present Tense Questions Medium



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How do you form the present tense in English?

To form the present tense in English, you generally add an -s or -es ending to the base form of the verb when the subject is a singular third-person pronoun (he, she, it). For example, the base form of the verb "to run" is "run," but in the present tense, it becomes "runs" when referring to a singular third-person subject like "he runs" or "she runs."

However, for all other subjects (I, you, we, they, and plural nouns), the present tense remains the same as the base form of the verb. For instance, "I run," "you run," "we run," and "they run."

It's important to note that there are some irregular verbs in English that do not follow this pattern and have unique forms in the present tense. For example, the verb "to be" has the present tense forms "am," "is," and "are" depending on the subject.

Additionally, when forming negative sentences or questions in the present tense, we use auxiliary verbs like "do" or "does" before the base form of the verb. For example, "I do not run" or "Does she run?"

Overall, the formation of the present tense in English involves adding an -s or -es ending for singular third-person subjects and keeping the base form of the verb for all other subjects.