In English grammar, the simple present tense is a form of the verb that refers to an action or event that is ongoing or that regularly takes place in present time (for example, "He crieseasily"). Except in the case of be, the simple present is represented in English by either the base form of the verb (e.g., "I/You/We/Theysing") or the base form plus the third-person singular -s inflection ("She sings").
- Example for simple present tense
1. Sun rises from the east, and sets on the west every day.
2. Government gives fund to poor people as a compensation of new oil policy.
3. Several national televisions broadcast their program 24 hours a day.
4. I always pray five times a day.
5. God is always be with us. .
In English grammar, the simple past is a verb tense (the second principal part of a verb) indicating action that occurred in the past and which does not extend into the present.
The simple past tense (also known as the past simple or preterite) of regular verbs is marked by the ending -d, -ed, or -t. Irregular verbs have a variety of endings. The simple past is not accompanied by helping verbs.
Example for Simple past
1. I sent you a letter a month ago
2. My mother cooked fried chicken for my birthday party last week
3. Jokowi won the president election several months ago
4. I would help you if I had much spare time
5. I get a head ache because I worked full time yesterday
The Present Continuous is mainly used to express the idea that something is happening at the moment of speaking. The Present Continuous also describes activities generallyin progress (not at the moment). Another use of the tense is to talk about temporary actions or future plans. Example for Present continuous
1. I am sorry, I can’t help you now, I am still studying for examination tomorrow.
2. The teacher is teaching his students right now
3. Don’t speak too loud, the baby is still sleeping
4. Just wait for me there, I am driving my car to your place
5. My car is being washed now, so I can’t go anywhere
The past continuous describes actions or events in a time before now, which began in the past and is still going on at the time of speaking. In other words, it expresses anunfinished or incomplete action in the past.
Example for Past continuous
1. I am sorry I didn’t know that you knocked at my door yesterday because I was listening to the music.
2. She was reading a book while the library was closed.
3. That building was being built last year when I passed last year, but now it’s already broken down
4. The music stopped when the dancers were dancing on the stage
5. While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off
What is subject verb agreement?
Subject verb agreement refers to the fact that the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in number. In other words, they both must be singular or they both must be plural. You can’t have a singular subject with a plural verb or vice versa. The tricky part is in knowing the singular and plural forms of subjects and verbs.
- Singular and plural subjects, or nouns, are usually pretty easy. In most cases the plural form of a noun has an “s” at the end.
-Car – singular
-Cars – plurar
Verbs don’t follow this pattern, though. Adding an “s” to a verb doesn’t make a plural. Here’s what I mean:
-Walks
Which one is the singular form and which is the plural form? Here’s a tip for you. Ask yourself which would you use with the word they and which would you use with he or she
-He walks.
-She walks
-They walk.
Since he and she are singular pronouns walks is a singular verb. The word they is plural so walk is the plural form.
- Here are some more guidelines for subject verb agreement.
1. When two singular subjects are joined by the words or or nor a singular verb is in order.
My sister or my brother is meeting you at the airport
2. Two singular subjects joined by either/or orneither/nor also need a singular verb.
Neither Carla nor Jeff is available to meet you at the airport.
Either Angie or Jeff is meeting at the airport.
3. When the word and connects two or more nouns or pronouns, use a plural verb.--She and her family are at Disney World.
4. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a plural noun or pronoun joined by oror nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearer the verb
-The athlete or his teammates sprint every day.
- His teammates or the athlete sprints every day.
5. When a phrase comes between the subject and verb, the verb has to agree with the subject, not with the noun or pronoun in the phrase.
- Two of the puppies are whimpering.
- The birthday boy, along with his friends, is anxious for the party to stop.
6. Since doesn’t is a contraction of does not it should be used with a singular subject.
- Mary doesn’t care for pizza.
- Don’t is a contraction of do not and requires a plural subject.
- They don’t know the way home.
7. Each, either, each one, everyone, neither, everybody, anyone, anybody, somebody, nobody, someone, and no one are singular so they need a singular verb.Each of the girls is qualified for the prize
-Neither knows how the competition will end.
8. Sentences that begin with there is or there arehave the subject following the verb since there is not a subject. Therefore, the verb must agree with what follows it.
- There are many paths to success.
- There is one road out of town.
- Kind Of Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph. Some examples of pronouns include I, me, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself,we, us, ours and ourselves. You may have noticed that they tend to come in sets of four, all referring to the same person, group or thing.
*He, him, his and himself,
* for example, all refer to a male person or something belonging to him
+They, them, theirs and them selves all refer to a group or something belonging to a group, and so on.
The truth is that there are many different types of pronouns, each serving a different purpose in a sentence.
Personal pronouns can be the subject of a clause or sentence. They are: I, he, she, it, they, we, and you. Example: “They went to the store.”
-Personal pronouns can also be objective, where they are the object of a verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. They are: me, her, him, it, you, them, and us. Example: “David gave the gift to her.”
-Possession can be shown by personal pronouns, like: mine, his, hers, ours, yours, its,and theirs. Example: “Is this mine or yours?”
Subject pronouns are often (but not always) found at the beginning of a sentence. More precisely, the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that lives out the verb.
*I owe that person $3,000. – I am living out that debt. I is the subject pronoun.
*He and I had a fight. – This sentence has two subjects becausehe and I were both involved in the fight.
*He broke my kneecaps. – You get the idea.
*To him, I must now pay my children's college funds. – If you'll notice, the verb in this sentence – the action – is "pay." Although I is not at the beginning of the sentence, it is the person living out the action and is, therefore, the subject.
By contrast, objects and object pronouns indicate the recipient of an action or motion. They come after verbs and prepositions (to, with, for, at, on, beside, under, around, etc.).
*The guy I borrowed moa@ney from showed me a crowbar and told me to pay him immediately.
*I begged him for more time.He said he'd given me enough time already.
*I tried to dodge the crowbar, but he hit me with it anyway.
*Just then, the police arrived and arrested us.
- Subject vs. Object Pronouns
There is often confusion over which pronouns you should use when you are one half of a dual subject or object. For example, should you say:
-"Me and him had a fight." or "He and I had a fight?"
-"The police arrested me and him." or "The police arrested he and I?"
-Some people will tell you that you should always put the other person first and refer to yourself as "I" because it's more proper, but those people are wrong. You can put the other person first out of politeness, but you should always use the correct pronouns (subject or object) for the sentence.
A good test to decide which one you need is to try the sentence with one pronoun at a time. Would you say, "Me had a fight?" Of course not. You'd say, "I had a fight." What about, "Him had a fight?" No, you'd say, "He had a fight." So when you put the two subjects together, you get, "He and I had a fight." The same rule applies to the other example.
-You wouldn't say, "The police arrested he," or, "The police arrested I.
-"You would use "him" and "me."So the correct sentence is, "The police arrested him and me."
- Possessive Adjectives vs. Possessive Pronouns
Pronominal possessive adjectives include the following: my, your, our, their, his, her and its. They are sort of pronouns in that they refer to an understood noun, showing possession by that noun of something. They are technically adjectives, though, because they modify a noun that follows them.
*My money is all gone.
*I gambled it all away on your race horse.
*His jockey was too fat.In all of these examples, there is a noun (money, race horse, jockey) that has not been replaced with a pronoun. Instead, an adjective is there to show whose money, horse and jockey we’re talking about.
- Possessive pronouns, on the other hand –mine, yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, its – are truly pronouns because they refer to a previously named or understood noun. They stand alone, not followed by any other noun. For comparison's sake, look at this sentence:
*You have your vices, and I have mine.
There are two types of pronouns here: subject (you/I) and possessive (mine). There's also a possessive adjective (your). We'll deal with the subject pronouns momentarily, but for now, just look at the others. Your is followed by the noun, vices, so although we know that your refers to you, it is not the noun or the noun substitute (pronoun). Vices is the noun. In the second half of the sentence, however, the noun and the possessive adjective have both been replaced with one word – the pronoun, mine. Because it stands in the place of the noun, mine is a true pronoun whereas your is an adjective that must be followed by a noun.
These pronouns do not point to any particular nouns, but refer to things or people in general. Some of them are: few, everyone, all, some, anything, and nobody. Example:
-“Everyone is already here.”
These pronouns are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. These are: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, andthat. Example:
- “The driver who ran the stop sign was careless.
These pronouns are used to emphasize a noun or pronoun. These are: myself, himself, herself, themselves, itself, yourself, yourselves, and ourselves. Example:
-“He himself is his worst critic.”
There are five demonstrative pronouns: these, those, this, that, and such. They focus attention on the nouns that are replacing. Examples:
*“Such was his understanding.”
* “Those are totally awesome.”
These pronouns are used to begin a question:who, whom, which, what, whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever. Example:
*“Who will you bring to the party?”
There is one more type of pronoun, and that is the reflexive pronoun. These are the ones that end in “self” or "selves." They are object pronouns that we use when the subject and the object are the same noun.
*I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.
*The robber hurt himself chasing me through the alley.
We also use them to emphasize the subject.
*Usually, the guy I borrowed the money from will send an employee to collect the money, but since I owed so much, he himself came to my house.
