Speaker 1: Listen to this. Yesterday, I go to the pizza place
down the block and I find out they have new owners,
and I look behind the counter and they have all
these weird kinds of pizza. They even have one with
pineapple and tuna. I don't really think that's pizza. Hey,
are you wondering why my story about yesterday uses all
present verbs. Let's check it out.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode seven ninety six.
Seven ways to use the simple present tense. According to
a lot of grammar books, the simple present tense is
used to describe actions, facts, and situations that are true
or regular. But what does that really mean? You may
be surprised to know that the simple present tense has
seven different uses in everyday English conversation. And that's what
we're going to do a deep dive into today. So
let's get the ball rolling. First of all, we use
this simple present tense to state facts that are always true,
like scientific facts or other things that don't change, like
the sun rises in the east. The sun rises, that's
something that doesn't change. Or boils at one hundred degrees
and water phrases at zero degrees. Those are two scientific facts,
but there are other kinds of facts too, like cats
have sharp claws and fire is hot. We also use
the simple present tents to talk about things we do regularly,
you know, like your daily activities and other habits. I
drink a cup of macha every morning. My sister drinks coffee,
and she goes to the gym twice a week. A
lot of people like to watch the evening news. Teenagers
spend a lot of time with their phones, and keep
in mind, we tend to use time expressions like always, usually, often,
sometimes never with the present ten vents like I always
drink green tea or Kim usually finishes work at six o'clock.
We also use the simple present tents when we talk
about scheduled events in the future. This includes things like
transportation schedules, business meetings, and TV programs. Like the train
to Boston departs at ten am. When I fly to Tokyo,
the travel agent said, my flight arrives at noon. The
evening news starts at six. So basically, when something is
planned and follows a fixed schedule, the simple present tents
can be used instead of the future tents. Those are
all examples of events that are regularly scheduled in a timetable,
but in four normal situations. You can also use the
simple present tense to talk about future arraignments that are
already decided, often with specific times, like the new boss
flies to New York next Monday. I think we meet
her on Tuesday morning. Again, this usage of the simple
present does have a formal sound to it. Another way
we use the simple present tense is when we give instructions,
commands or directions, like you just press this button to
start the coffee maker. When you make bread, first mix
all the dry ingredients, then add them to the water.
Oh yeah, when I got to the motor vehicle office,
the woman behind the desk said, please take a seat
and fill out this form next up. We usually use
the simple present when we give our opinions and talk
about preferences. For example, I like dogs, but my friend
Nobi likes cats, and unlike a lot of Americans, I
think football is boring. Don't you think coffee tastes better?
With a little milk. Of course, verbs that express thoughts, emotions,
or senses are often used with the present tents because
they can't be used in a progressive tense. Like the
boss believes in working hard even on the weekend. We
can't say the boss is believing in working hard. The
boss believes in working hard. Lastly, we use the simple
present tents in storytelling, sports commentaries, and jokes to make
the action feel more immediate and exciting. Using the simple
present tense to tell a story, even if it's a
story based in the past, makes the story feel more real.
Like yesterday, I walk into the coffee shop near my
office and I see my ex girlfriend. She's there with
some guy who's like twenty five years older than her,
and she sees me, and then blah blah blah blah blah.
You get the idea. Using the present tense in this
story makes the action seem real. And speaking of action,
when you watch sports on TV, the announcer uses the
simple present tense like here comes show, Hey o'tney, he
stands in the batter's box, Here comes the pitch he
swings home wrong. Keep in mind the best way to
remember English like this and any other word or phrase
in English is to take that word or phrase, write
it in a sentence that's true for you or true
in your world, and then memorize your sentences. You know what.
You can get more practice using your English when you
join my podcast Learner's study Group. There you can make
new friends, join us for live group lessons every week
where we practice these podcast lessons together. Plus you get
access to the pdf, transcript and audio download for every
Happy English podcast in the past and in the future.
And on top of that, each episode has exercises where
you can practice this English point with speaking and writing
checked by me. To learn more, just visit Myhappy English
dot com and choose podcast lesson seven ninety six. Remember,
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on you your journey.
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Happy English.