The Simple Tenses

The Simple Tenses

Let’s look at the Simple Tenses first. There are two Simple Tenses – the Present Simple and the Past Simple. (There is no Future Simple Tense. The future is shown in a number of different ways, which will be dealt with in another unit).

The Simple Tenses deal with “facts” which are situated in different time frames and in different mind frames - extra meaning that we want to communicate when we use the verb.

Examples:

She teaches She taught

They learn They learnt

He studies We studied

The Simple Tenses:

Form

Present Simple Past Simple

I/you/we/they study I/you/we/they studied

he/she/it studies he/she/it/ studied

Note that:

· With the Present Simple, we add ‘s’ to the verb for he/she/it.

With The Past Simple, the same form is used for all the pronouns.

· We use the auxiliary verb ‘DO’ to make questions and negatives.

Do CLIL teachers need to know language?

They don’t need to be language specialists.

How did teachers prepare a lesson in traditional teaching?

Previously, teachers didn’t include much focus on Cognition, Community and Competences.

Uses of the Present Simple:

The Present Simple is used to show a sense of direct involvement or closeness.

We use the Present Simple for:

1. Facts, or things which are always true

'Can-do’ statements describe the outcomes of a lesson.

A chemical reaction is the change of a substance into a new one that has a different chemical identity.

Alaska is the 49^th State of the USA.

A fraction is a part of a whole, eg ½, ¾

Hot air rises.

Acids react with Alkalis in a process called neutralization.

When Aluminium (Al) is placed on the surface of liquid Bromide (Br2), an exothermic reaction occurs.

2. Repeated actions in the present

Teachers build lessons about what the students already know (3).

With CLIL, teachers talk much less, because the students don’t have enough of the new language to learn in this way (5).

CLIL teachers think about the can-do statements they want their students to be able to make after the lesson (9).

Water evaporates to form clouds.

When clouds condense, it rains.

3. Time clauses

In clauses which begin with words like after, as soon as, before, until, when, whenever, and while, we use the present simple, even though we are talking about the future.

These are the skills which the students will be using when they start working in the real world (7).

Before we start, we will read this unit on the Rain Cycle.

After we finish, we will look at a diagram showing the process.

When we understand the process, we will then describe the process in our own words.

4. Conditional clauses

We use a present form in conditional clauses which describe somehing we think is likely to happen:

If the temperature drops, we will need warmer clothes for our field trip.

You will have to revise these topics if you want to pass the exam.

If the EU grows stronger, other countries will ask to join.

5. Future scheduled events

Exams start in the first week of June, in 2 weeks’ time.

Results then come out two weeks after the end of the scholastic year, in July.

As soon as we apply heat, the reaction starts.

Other uses of the Present Simple:

6. Events happening now

For example, in a documentary about archaeology, the narrator could use the Present Simple to explain what is happening:

“As we see, the workers on the site dig with great care, to avoid breaking any artefacts. They use a trowel rather than a spade, and if the workers spot anything, they stop digging, and brush away the soil with a brush”.

The Present Simple helps to make the narrative more ‘immediate, vivid and close’.

7. Past events

We use the present simple when we want to make something that happened in the past seem more vivid.

Teacher: “So what we have in 1939 is a situation where Hitler is about to invade Poland, and the Allies are almost unable to believe it”.

Past Simple

While we use the Present Simple to show immediacy and closeness, we use the Past Simple to show remoteness or distance.

Use

We use the Past Simple for:

1. Events and states in the past which are over and completed – distant in time

In traditional teaching, teachers prepared a lesson around a logical development of the area the students were working on already, and also prepared the ground for what they were going to study next (2).

In the past, students learned a lot of lesson content while they were listening to the teacher talk (4).

2. Conditional clauses

We use a Past form to describe something that we think is unlikely to happen – distance from reality.

If Malta left the EU, there would be a lot of changes on the island.

By using the past, we are showing that we believe this is a remote possibility only – it is far (or distant) from being real.

(Note: Compare this to the Present Simple explanation, where we looked at Conditional Clauses which we think are likely to happen.

If the EU grows stronger, more countries will ask to join.)

Note that:

Many verbs form the Past Simple by adding ‘ed’.

work – worked

finish – finished

repeat – repeated

Some verbs change their spelling slightly.

study – studied

hope – hoped

shop – shopped

A lot of verbs, however, have a different Past Simple.

teach – taught

fly – flew

leave – left

split - split

Most course books and dictionaries contain a list of common irregular Past Simple verbs like these for reference (and for learning!).

Download PDF The Simple Tenses

Click her to return to Unit 4 - The Simple vs Progressive Tenses