Magazine · · 2 min read
The English simple present, explained for German speakers
The basic present tense in English has exactly one trap: the third person singular. When the simple present is used, how questions and negatives are built — and why the -s feels so illogical.
What the simple present is for
The simple present is the basic form of the present. It is used for things that are generally true, recur or simply are: habits, timetables, properties, laws of nature. “The shop opens at eight in the morning.” — every day at eight, not right now.
What is always true or happens regularly: simple present.
What is happening at this very moment takes the present progressive instead: “The shop is opening.” The difference is not one of time but of view — regular, or in progress.
One sentence, one -s
All the effort sits in a single person. In the third person singular — he, she, it — the verb takes an -s: “My sister lives in Hamburg.” Everywhere else it is the base form: I work, you work, we work, they work.
One sentence, one -s: either on the verb or on does.
If the verb ends in -s, -sh, -ch, -x or -o, add -es: “He watches the news every evening.” If it ends in a consonant plus -y, the y becomes -ies: “She studies medicine.”
Questions and negatives with do
Negatives and questions are not formed on the verb but with do or does. The main verb then stays in its base form and hands its -s to does: “She does not work.” — “Does he know the answer?” A sentence like “He dont like fish.” is therefore wrong twice over: it has do instead of does, and the apostrophe is missing. Correct is “He doesn't like fish.”
When does appears, the verb loses its -s.
There are two exceptions: to be and to have got form questions and negatives without do. “Is she at home?” — “She has not got a car.”
Why the third person of all things
English once had endings in every person, as German still does: ich gehe, du gehst, er geht. Over the centuries they disappeared one after another. The -s in the third person singular is the only remnant left in the present tense.
The -s is not a beginning but the last remnant of old endings.
That is why it feels so illogical: it is not the start of a system but the end of a worn-down one. EveryLingua explains the whole of English grammar this way, in German and level by level, with exercises for every topic that are checked right in the browser.
Next
This is how we work — and what comes of it.
What this text describes sits inside every product under this roof. Looking beats reading on.
Exactly this is inside:
More articles
Citizenship test in Germany: how many questions, how many right?
33 questions, 60 minutes, a pass from 17 correct answers. What sits behind these three numbers, where the questions come from — and why the whole test can be learned in advance.
Read the articleGerman recreational boat licence (sea): questions and pass marks
30 of 285 questions, 60 minutes, two parts scored separately. Why the spread of your mistakes matters more than their number — and what comes on top of the theory exam.
Read the articleCalculating rental yield: gross, net and the price-to-rent factor
Gross yield is in every listing and says little. How to get from it to net yield, what the price-to-rent factor means — and which items are forgotten most often. With a worked example.
Read the article