Present Tense Exercises

Time for practice!

Write the correct forms of the verbs in brakets to complete the exercises.
Example:
I usually come to the club on Sundays.

1) Penguins ...... (live) in the Antartic.
2) English people ..... (drink) a lot of coffee.
3) I ..... (run) 3 km every day.
4) My cellphone ......(take) 2 hs to get charged.
5) They usually ......(pass) their exams with high grades!

Lets check how you did!

1) live

2) drink

3) run

4) takes

5) pass

Here are some web-sites where you can put into practice what you´ve learnt in theory!!

• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%209.htm

• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Simple_Present_Tense.htm

Present Simple and Continuous Tense

Present Tense

1) Factual information; scientific statement; universal/gral truth. Things that will never change because they are always the same.

“Waterbboils at 100°C”

2) Characteristic behaviour of a grop of people; custom (not habit)

“British people drink a lot of tea.”

3) Fixed timetable; part of schedule; future event; decided by authorieres and can´t be changed at will.

“The train leaves at 9:00am.”

4) Schedule; part of plan; itinerary.

“We visit the museum on Thursday.”

5) Historic present; imediacy to bring the reader closer

“Columbus arrives at America in 1492.”

6) Immediacy to stories; telling jokes.

“....and then he says…”

7) Geographical references/descritions of an area

“The River Thames divides the land in two.”

8) Sport commentaries in TV/radio when the action in taking place

“He passes the ball to Messi who scores a goal!”

9) Declarative sentence. Inversion(subject-verb-->Adv./PP fronted to indicate movement)

“Up the river sails the boat.”

10) Formula; fixed expression.

“I declare you man and wife.”

11) Journalese; headlines to make more vivid and grab the attention of the reader; refference to PAST (Narrative Present)

“Ship sinks and leaves 300 deaths.”

12) Instructions; procedures. Imperative; impersonal “you”.

“First you clean the surface and then you put the ingredients on it.”

13) Express a belief.

“I bet -i know the answer.”

PRESENT SIMPLE	PRESENT CONT./PROGRESSIVE
Expressing likes and dislikes. “I don´t like gangster films.”	Feeling in process of change; transformations “I´m liking it a bit more.” Somebody doing different things. “Are you liking your stay?”
Permanent condition; NOT indicate action (habit) “Every time I go to Brazil, I stay in that hotel”	Temporary arrangement “I´m staying at that hotel.” ## “How was your stay?”(N) ##
Fixed timetable; schedule decided upon by authority. “The train leaves/arrives at six.”	Temporary arrangement; change to schedule. “The  train is arriving at six.”
Habit. “The do sleeps on the couch.”	Change in habit; action in progress at the time of speaking. “The dog is sleeping outside because we are painting the living room.”
## Completed action ## “I´ve learnt how to play chess.”	Action taking place/in progress for a limited amount of time “I´m learning how to play chess.” Temporary action “I´m walking to work these days till the mechanics repaired the car.”
Characteristic beahaviour (habit); permanent “Jack is noisy.”	Action/attitude/behaviour at the time; not characteristic of the person. “Jack is being noisy.”
Posession “I have a Porsche.”	“have” replaces certain verbs; informal. “We are having (taking) an interesting conversation.”
Mental state verbs; involuntary perception; NO action “I think I like you.” “The fish tastes good.”	Considering; mental and voluntary perception; activity. “I´m thinking about getting a job.” “I´m tasting the coffee in the mousse.” Progressive + ”always” Annoyance at sb´s behaviour/attitude “You are always slamming the doors!” =wish+”would” “I wish you would stop slamming the doors.” =”keep” + ing “you keep complaing.” = will + inf “And you will slam the doors.” (repettition)
	Incohative verbs(go, turn,get, become); process, change “I´m going mad” “Leaves are turning yellow”
Mental perception “I know the answer.”	Getting to know. “I´m getting to know him better in this trip.”