MY FIRST TENSE

Welcome aboard, Gems! It’s finally time for you to build your English persona. First of all, let’s measure your current English abilities. You can download the DO-IT-YOURSELF CHEAT SHEET below and fill it right away (or print it if you want to have a copy):

Remember, the main reason why English seems hard is because there are GAPS between English and our mother tongue, Indonesian. Here, we are going to #BridgeTheGap together so you can finally own your English. Let’s start with our very first mission!

THE GAPS

Some first GAPS that we have to understand this week are:

• The importance of using SUBJECTS & VERBS.
• The SUBJECT & VERB have to agree with each other.
• VERBS have TENSES!

We are going to get to know each TENSES and its GAPS one by one. The first TENSE that we are going to learn is PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE.

PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

As we have learned in class, we use this TENSE to talk about ROUTINES & FACTS. We can talk about those things using 2 types of VERBS; STATE & ACTIVITY.

STATE VERB USE

We use STATE VERBS to talk about STATE (keadaan) or FACTS (fakta) about us, other people, or things around us. For example:

We use the VERB BE (ARE/AM/IS) in PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE with FACTS/STATES and NOT activities. Instead, this is how we use ACTIVITY VERBS in PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE:

ACTIVITY VERB USE

We use ACTIVITY VERBS in this TENSE to talk about FACTS, COMMON KNOWLEDGES, AND HABITS. For example:

The examples above shows the functions of ACTIVITY VERBS in PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE. We have to pay attention to the CHANGE of the VERBS when it comes to different SUBJECTS:

• I/you/we/they/plural nouns – VERB (I eat noodle every week.)
• She/he/it/singular nouns – VERB+s (My brother eats noodle every week.)

The examples we see above have something in common; those are POSITIVE sentences that covey statements. Now, how do we change them into NEGATIVE or INTERROGATIVE sentences?

HELPING VERBS VS. MAIN VERBS

We can call the ACTIVITY VERBS with another name; MAIN VERBS (or kata kerja utama in Indonesian). MAIN VERBS show the MAIN STATE/ACTIVITY that we do in a sentence (such as drink, jump, love, etc). When it comes to turning a POSITIVE sentence to a NEGATIVE/INTERROGATIVE one, we have to add a HELPING VERB to help the MAIN VERB. Look at the example below:

• I not eat noodle every week. ❌ ➡️ I do not eat noodle every week. ✅

• You eat noodle every week? ❌ ➡️ Do you eat noodle every week? ✅

As we can see, we have to add another VERB to the sentence to make it NEGATIVE/INTERROGATIVE. The proper HELPING VERB is DO/DOES, depending on who the SUBJECT is:

• I/you/we/they/plural nouns – DO
  • I DO not like to eat fruits.
  • DO you like to eat fruits?
• She/he/it/singular nouns – DOES
  • She DOES not work here.
  • DOES she work here?

COMMON MISTAKES

The most common mistake that people always make is using both STATE and ACTIVITY VERB in one sentence. For example:

• I am feel not okay today. ❌

• She is go to the office by train every day. ❌

• We want have a new house. ❌

Instead, we have to say:

• She is very hardworking. (a BE VERB followed by a fact) ✅

• She goes to the office by train every day. (an ACTIVITY VERB that shows a habit) ✅

Another common mistake that people always make is using the wrong HELPING VERB, such as:

• Are you go to the office every day?

The BE VERB (ARE/AM/IS) is not the correct HELPING VERB to combine with an ACTIVITY/OTHER STATE VERBS, that’s why it’s wrong. We can combine them with another type of VERB that we will find out later.

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Understanding PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE and its MAIN & HELPING VERBS are the key to understanding English sentence structure. After this, don’t forget to challenge yourself by doing the quiz. Happy learning, Gems!