Do you know what the present tense is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on present tenses, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 13, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is the present tense?
According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language, from a simple form of the verb to complex:
- Simple present tense
- Conditional perfect progressive tense
- Conditional progressive tense
- Conditional perfect tense
- Imperative tense
- Indicative tense
- Infinitive tense
- Perfect passive tense
- Simple past tense
- Past perfect progressive tense
- Present participle tense
- Present progressive tense
- Gerund tense or gerund phrase
- Past perfect tense
- Past progressive/continuous tense
- Future perfect tense
- Bare infinitive tense
- Simple conditional tense
- Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
- Simple future tense
- Present perfect tense
- Future progressive tense
- Present indicative tense
- To-infinitive tense
- Future perfect progressive tense
- Past progressive tense
- Present continuous tense
- Present perfect progressive tense
- Present perfect continuous tense
- Subjunctive tense
- Past participle tense
- Conditional tense
Today we will cover the present tense. This verb tense in English grammar is used to describe things that are currently happening in present time at a specific time, or that are habits or habitual actions, continued action, temporary action, unchanging situations, repeated actions, continuous activity, ongoing action or general truths. There are many different types of present tense forms made from the base form of the verb. Often, the simple present tense is formed by adding “es” or “ies” to the end of a verb, while the present progressing is formed by a form of the verb to be and a verb ending in “ing.” Irregular forms have different conjugations. Present tense verbs are a grammatical tense that is often used. The different forms of the present tense function in similar ways with the time of the action. Past actions and past events are formed by the past tense, for things that happened yesterday, last month or any time in the past. The future tense is used for things that are yet to come, like next year. Take a look at these examples of occurrences and the use of the present tense verb form:
The hamsters are given a certain amount of time to complete the maze in real-time.
I am currently reading three novels.
He has a headache.
The gymnasts bends to stretch her muscles.
I’m editing my homework that my teacher gave feedback on.
The train leaves in five minutes according to the following table.
I feel big emotions, and often shed tears.
Her favorite thing to do is get ice cream after tennis practice.
Many different languages also contain words that mean present tense. You may notice that some of these translations of present tense look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of present tense is provided by Word Sense.
- Telugu: వర్తమానకాలము
- Icelandic: nútíð (fem.)
- Kumyk: гьалиги заман (haligi zaman)
- Lithuanian: esamasis laikas (masc.)
- Nogai: аьлиги заман
- Uzbek: hozirgi zamon
- Belarusian: цяперашні час
- Hungarian: jelen idő
- Persian: حال (hâl)
- Georgian: აწმყო
- Russian: настоя́щее вре́мя (neut.)
- Chuvash: хальхи вӑхӑт
- Scottish Gaelic: tràth làthaireach (masc.)
- Estonian: olevik
- Hebrew: לשון הוה
- Navajo: tʼáhdii
- Romanian: prezent (neut.), timpul prezent (neut.) def. form, timpurile prezent (n-p) def. form
- Turkmen: häzirki zaman
- Finnish: preesens
- Walloon: tins prezintrece (masc.)
- Southern Altai: тургуза ӧй (turguza öy)
- Dutch: tegenwoordige tijd (masc.)
- Norman: présent (masc.)
- Yakut: билиҥҥи кэм
- Japanese: 現在時制 (genzai jisei), 現在形 (genzaikei)
- Kyrgyz: учур чак
- Spanish: presente
- French: présent
- Crimean Tatar: şimdiki zaman
- Azeri: indiki zaman
- Latvian: tagadnes laiks (masc.)
- Czech: přítomný čas (masc.)
- Roman: prezent (masc.)
- Bashkir: хәҙерге заман
- Latin: tempus praesens, praesens
- Ido: prezento
- Tatar: хәзерге заман
- Portuguese: presente (masc.)
- Polish: czas teraźniejszy (masc.)
- Albanian: koha e tashme
- West Frisian: notiid
- Kazakh: осы шақ
- Greek: ενεστώτας (masc.)
- German: Gegenwart (fem.), Präsens (neut.)
- Tagalog: pangkasalukuyan, nagaganap
- Slovene: sedanjik (masc.)
- Swedish: presens
- Udmurt: али дыр
- Turkish: şimdiki
- Italian: presente indicativo (masc.)
- Slovak: prítomný čas (masc.)
- Korean: 현재 시제 (hyeonje sije) (現在時制)
- Cyrillic: презент (masc.)
- German Low German: Präsens, Nutiet
- Ukrainian: теперішній час
- Kalmyk: өдгә цаг
- Shor: амдығы тем (amdığı tem)
- Tuvan: амгы үе
- Mandarin: 現在時態, 现在时态 (xiànzài shítài), 現在時, 现在时 (xiànzàishí)
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- proper noun | proper name
- similative
- indirect passive
- positive
- perfect
- indirect speech
- instrumental
- direct question
- infinitive
- number
- to-infinitive
- masculine
- direct speech
- past tense
- optative
- abstract
- absolute (absol.)
- noun phrase
- imperative (imper.)
- phrasal verb
- interjection
- construed (const., constr.)
- object | direct object | indirect object
- second person
- adverb (adv.)
- combining form (comb. form)
- prepositional object
- participial adjective
- filler
- postmodify | postmodifier
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- premodify | premodifier
- protasis
- adjective
- causative
- neuter
- indicative
- subordinate clause
- active
- modify | modifier
- anticipatory
- cataphoric
- anaphoric
- definite article
- indirect question
- common noun
- agree | agreement
- base form
- tense
- head
- passive infinitive
- finite
- simple
- dative
- determiner
- main clause
- vocative
- agent noun
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- stem
- zero
- collective noun
- gerund
- combination
- unmarked genitive
- compound | compounding
- locative
- preposition (prep.)
- count noun
- plural
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- declarative
- gender
- double object
- verbal noun
- demonstrative
- article
- apposition
- mood
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- predicative
- conditional
- relative
- subject
- attributive
- non-finite
- complement
- subjunctive
- possessive adjective
- parasynthetic
- present participle
- genitive
- mass noun
- possessive pronoun
- passive
- quasi-
- copular verb | copula
- nominative
- intensifier
- direct object
- interrogative
- first person
- prepositional phrase
- objective
- verb (v.)
- non-referential
- adverbial | adverbially
- ellipsis | elliptical
- noun (n.)
- indefinite
- special use
- part of speech
- transitive
- third-person
- main verb
- complementary
- bare infinitive
- dual
- collocation | collocate
- personal pronoun
- singular
- conjunction (conj.)
- reflexive
- construction
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- prepositional passive
- superlative
- present tense
- pronoun (pron.)
- case
- concrete
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- participle | past participle | present participle
- clause
- cognate object
- person
- progressive
- phrase (phr.)
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- pro-form
- element
- apodosis and protasis
- possessive
- subjective
- antecedent
- accusative
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- intransitive
- that-clause
- prefix
- feminine
- appositive
- morpheme
- comparative
- indirect object
- impersonal (impers.)
Overall, the present tense describes things that happen right now.
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