蜜芽传媒

Sophie
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Sophie.

Neil
And me, Neil. Hello.

Sophie
Today we’re talking about the present simple tense…

Neil
…and the present continuous tense. Coming up in today’s programme:

Sophie
We’ll take a look at positives, negatives, and question forms…

Neil
We’ll find out when to use each tense…

Sophie
We’ll hear some short forms…

Neil
And we’ll have a quiz to test what we’ve learnt.

Sophie
But first: the present simple tense. We use it to talk about things that happen regularly. Here’s Finn with an example:

Finn
John checks his email every morning.

Sophie
Thanks Finn. So the verb ‘to check’ is in the present simple – John checks – because he checks his email regularly – every morning.

Neil
We make the present simple with a subject plus a base verb – I check, you go, we live, they wear.

Sophie
For he, she and it, add an ‘s’ to the verb.

Finn
I always we?ar a coat in the winter. My brother wears a jacket.

Neil
Now we also use the present simple to talk about facts and permanent situations. So we can say…

Finn
I work in the fashion industry. My sister lives in China.

Sophie
To make the present simple negative, use don’t or doesn’t. And there’s no ‘s’ on the end of the verb. Finn?

Finn
I don’t work in the modelling industry. My brother doesn’t like fashion.

Neil
For questions, use do or does.

Finn
Do your friends live in London? Does John check his email in the morning?

Neil
So that’s present simple. Now: let’s look at the present continuous tense… ooh just a minute, let me get that… Hello? No sorry, I’m working at the moment. Can I call you back? Sorry about that everyone…

Sophie
No problem…

Neil
So: I just said I’m working at the moment.
Sophie
Aha! A clever demonstration!

Neil
You see! I said I’m working at the moment, because it’s an activity that’s happening now. I can say I work at the 蜜芽传媒 in the present simple because my job is a permanent situation. But right now at this moment I’m doing the activity of working, so I use present continuous to say I’m working at the moment.

Sophie
Right. As well as activities, we use the present continuous tense for temporary situations like this:

Finn
My parents are staying with me this week. I’m sleeping on the sofa.

Sophie
Sorry to hear that Finn. To make the present continuous, use am, is or are plus an i-n-g verb.

Finn
I’m checking my email at the moment. Emily’s wearing a pink hat today. They’re eating dinner now.

Neil
And did you hear those short forms? The words I am are shortened to I’m…

Sophie
Emily is sounds like Emily’s.

Neil
And they are sounds like they’re. We’ll have more short forms in just a moment.

IDENT
You’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
And today we’re talking about the present simple tense…

Sophie
…and the present continuous.

Neil
Let’s look at present continuous negatives. We make them with the little word not.

Finn
I’m not wearing a raincoat because it isn’t raining.

Sophie
And here are those short forms again:

Neil
I am not becomes…

Sophie
…I’m not.

Neil
Is not…

Sophie
…颈蝉苍’迟.

Neil
And for are not we get…

Sophie
…aren’t. Umm Neil, are you sending an email?

Neil
Errr – yes… What are we doing? Are we talking about questions?

Sophie
Yes, we are.

Neil
Ooh, sorry, sorry. OK, back to the programme!

Sophie
Aha! Another clever demonstration! I said: Are you sending an email?

Neil
And I said: Are we talking about questions?

Sophie
And of course, we both asked present continuous yes/no questions.

Neil
And to make them, you just change the word order. Instead of You are sending an email, it’s Are you sending an email? It’s fine to put question words like ‘Why’ or ‘What’ at the start of the question.

Finn
What are we doing? Why are you sending an email?

Neil
Thank you, Finn. So that’s present continuous questions.

Sophie
So that means: it’s time for a quiz. I’m going to say a sentence and you need to make it negative. Number 1. Paolo speaks Chinese.

Neil
Paolo doesn’t speak Chinese.

Sophie
Now make this sentence into a yes/no question: The children are playing a game.

Neil
Are the children playing a game?

Sophie
And one more: this time, make a present continuous question starting with why. Simon is learning Japanese.

Neil
Why is Simon learning Japanese?

Sophie
And that’s the end of the quiz – well done if you got them all right.

Neil
And that’s also the end of the programme – but there’s more about these tenses on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Sophie
Join us again for more 6 Minute Grammar.

Both
Bye.

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