PRESENT INDEFINITE (PRESENT SIMPLE)

FORMATION:
Do you often visit your grandparents? – I visit them every week.
Does Derek watch television every day? – No, he doesn’t. His parents
don’t allow him to waste time on it.
PRESENT INDEFINITE IS USED in the following cases:
1. for permanent states, repeated actions and daily routines, e.g.
Mr. Freeman works in a bank. (permanent state)
He takes the train to work every morning. (daily routine/repeated
actions)
We don’t usually watch television in the morning. (repeated action)
Do you always get up at one and the same time? (daily routine)
2. for general truths and laws of nature, e.g.
The sun sets in the west.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
3. for timetables (planes, trains, etc.) and programmes, e.g.
The plane from Brussels arrives 8:30.
When does this shop open?
4. for sports commentaries, reviews and narration, opera and theatre
librettos, stage directions, e.g.
Peterson overtakes Williams and wins the race. (sports commentary)
Mike Dalton plays the part of Macbeth. (review)
Then the prince gets on his horse and quickly rides away. (narration)
5. to give instructions or directions (instead of the imperative mood), e.g.
You sprinkle some cheese on the pizza and then you bake it, (instead of:
“Sprinkle some cheese on the pizza...”)
6. in adverbial clauses of time and condition after the following conjunctions:
when if unless before till until
while after in case as long as as soon as
The children won’t go to the park unless they do all their homework.
As soon as Bertha arrives at the station, she will sent us a telegram.
NOTE:
Don’t confuse adverbial clauses of time and condition and object clauses:
Adverbial clauses of time and condition Object clauses
(only present tenses) (any tense)
Ask Sonia to phone me (when?) when Do you know (what?) when Sonia will
she comes home. – (time) come home?
Ask Sonia to phone me (on what I wonder (what?) if Sonia will come
condition?) if she comes before 9 p.m. before 9 p.m.
(condition)
 7. with stative verbs instead of Present Continuous, e.g.
I hate when it drizzles like this.
The cake smells delicious.
8. The Present Simple is used with the following time expressions (adverbial
modifiers of time:
usually rarely in the
often never morning/afternoon/
always permanently evening
seldom from time to time at night, at the
occasionally now and then weekend,
sometimes everyday/week/month/ on Mondays, etc.
ever year
Does he ever visit you nowadays?
Pat occasionally writes postcards to her distant relatives.
9. To make sentences in Present Indefinite more emphatic auxiliary verbs “do”
or “does” are added in affirmative sentences, e.g.
I do want to meet your parents. – Я дійсно хочу зустрітися з твоїми
батьками.
Fiona does insist on your going to Kiev. – Фіона все-таки наполягає
на твоїй поїздці до Києва.
10.Note should be taken about questions to the subject which are asked without
an auxiliary verb and with the direct order of words, e.g.
Who usually cooks in your family? – Our mum does.
Paula and Jack sometimes visit us at the weekends. – Sorry, I didn’t
catch you. Who visits you at the weekends? – Paula and Jack do.
A short answer to the questions of this type are formed with the auxiliary
verb “do” or “does”.
SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE VERB
Semantically the verb can be classified from different points of view. All the verbs
can fall into several groups:
 GROUP 1. STATIVE AND DYNAMIC VERBS

VERB

DYNAMIC STATIVE

to run, to walk, to dress also called state or statal

to be, to see, to know
Most STATIVE VERBS DESCRIBE a state rather than an action and therefore do
not normally have continuous tenses, e.g.
Do you know our new neighbours’ name?
Listen! Do you hear anything strange?

STATIVE VERBS INCLUDE:

1. verbs which express likes and dislikes, wishes and emotions
to like to love to dislike to enjoy to detest to prefer
to adore to hate to want to wish to envy to hope
to fear to care
Don’t lie to me! I hate when people lie.
What do you feel when you look at your neighbour’s new house? – I envy them
2. verbs of the senses (verbs of sense perception)
to see to hear to smell to taste to sense to sound to feel
Jim must be at home.
I can see his car parked outside.
3. verbs of mental perception
to know to believe to understand to realize to remember
to forget to notice to recognize to think to seem
to see (= understand) to expect (= think) to imagine to suppose
I expect they will be late.
Jack now realizes that a job like that was very difficult for him.
Do you believe now that I was right?
4. verbs of possession
to have to belong to own to possess
Do you know who this pictures belong to?
 My uncle owns a hotel.
5. some other verbs such as
to be to contain to include to fit to need to matter
to cost to mean to owe to require to weigh to keep
Martin owes me 15 dollars.
This dress fits you perfectly.
The bag costs a lot.
NOTES:

 Some verbs can be either dynamic or stative according to the context, in

which they are used, e.g.
I can’t see anything, it’s too dark here. (a stative verb)

I’m seeing Mary in the morning. (= I’m meeting her. – a dynamic verb)
 The verb “to be” used in indefinite aspect denotes a person’s character,
occupation, age, etc, or a permanent state, while used in the continuous
aspect means a person’s behaviour, a temporary situation, and is usually
used with adjectives such as careful, silly, (im)polite, lazy, etc.), e.g.
What are you doing at the moment? – I’m being lazy, just for a change.
Stop talking back to me. You are being impolite.
 The verb “to enjoy” can be used in the continuous aspect to express specific
preference, e.g.
I'm enjoying this party a lot. (specific preference)
I enjoy going to parties. (I enjoy parties in general.)
 The verbs “to look” (when we refer to a person's appearance), “to feel” (=
experience a particular emotion), “to hurt” and “to ache” can be used in
either the continuous or simple tenses with no difference in meaning, e.g.
You look/are looking great today.
How are you feeling today? = How do you feel today?