English (Basic) - Lesson fifth

Simple Tense

Verb tense tells you when the action happens. There are three main verb tenses: present, past, and future. Each main tense is divided into simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive tenses.

 

Present

Past

Future

Simple

finish

finished

will finish

Progressive

am/is/are finishing

was/were finishing

will be finishing

Perfect

have/has finished

had finished

will have finished

Perfect Progressive

have/has been finishing

had been finishing

will have been finishing



Things to remember about simple tense:

     a. Present tense is the original verb form. 
     b. Past tense has a few patterns. 
     c. Future tense needs will (shall) + verb. 

run

  • I run a marathon twice a year. (present)
  • I ran a marathon last year. (past)
  • I will run a marathon next year. (future)

eat

  • I eat lunch in my office.
  • I ate lunch an hour ago.
  • I will eat lunch in one hour.

see

  • I see a movie once a week.
  • I saw a movie yesterday.
  • I will see a movie tomorrow.

know

  • I know it.
  • I knew it the day before yesterday.
  • I will know it by tomorrow.

learn

  • I learn English.
  • I learned English the last two years.
  • I will learn English next year.

cook

  • I cook my supper every night.
  • I cooked our dinner already.
  • I will cook breakfast tomorrow.

Todd: Hello, Mini.

Mini: Hello.

Todd: Now, Mini, you are from Sri Lanka.

Mini: Yes.

Todd: If somebody is going to your country, can you recommend three things they should do or three things they should see?

Mini: OK, the first thing is you can go and see the ancient things that all the Kings and Queens built, like castles. We have a castle called... it's called the Rock Castle. It's called Sigirya, so it's very beautiful.

Todd: This is the Rock Castle.

Mini: Yeah, it's... the castle is on the rock itself, so you can see the ruins there. It's really beautiful, with pictures, paintings, arts and stuff.

Todd: Oh, really. That's really cool, so this rock castle, how old is it?

Mini: I'm not sure, but maybe around two thousand. I'm not sure. Sorry.

Todd: What else should people you see?

Mini: The second thing should be beaches. We have beautiful beaches all over the place, blue, clean. You can swim. You can surf. It's very beautiful. That's the second thing.

Todd: Surfing is popular in Sri Lanka?

Mini: M-hm. I mean, not popular amongst Sri Lankans but most of the... many tourists come, especially the Germans, they come to my country and surf because the hotels near the beaches are very cheap and it's very beautiful hotels and very cheap. Food is cheap. It's nice.

Todd: OK. So, we've got the Rock Castle, surfing on the beach. Anything else?

Mini: And then a third thing should be the Tooth Temple. It's like the tooth of a Buddha, so we got it from I guess India, King Ashoka, so it's one of the things that you can see there. It's a really beautiful temple.

Todd: OK, I'm sorry. Can you say the name of that again?

Mini: Temple of Tooth Relic.

Todd: The Temple of Tooth Relic.

Mini: Yeah.

Todd: OK.

Mini: It's in Kandy. A place called Kandy.

Todd: Kandy. OK. Well, thanks for the tips Mini.

Source:http://www.manythings.org/elllo/1.html