About this video
David explains that the present tense describes what is happening right now. A handy test is adding 'right now' to the end of a sentence. He shows two ways to form it: a plain, unadorned verb (I eat a donut) and 'is' plus an -ing verb (Bertie is singing).
You'll be able to
- explain what the present tense describes.
- use the 'right now' test to check for present tense.
- recognize two ways to form the present tense.
Key words
- present tense
- The verb form for things happening right now.
- unadorned verb
- A plain verb on its own, like 'eat', with no helping words or endings added.
Transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians! Welcome to the present tense, or that which is happening right now. The present tense is how we talk about things that are happening in the present moment. Like, "I eat a donut." If I say it that way, it means it's happening right now in the present as opposed to happening later, in the future, or before now, in the past.
The present tense is what's happening right now. If you can just imagine, just put the words "right now" at the end of anything that takes place in the present. "I eat a donut right now." "Louise doesn't want a catapult right now." "The water is super cold right now."
"Bertie is singing in the shower right now." All of these sentences are taking place in what we call the present. There are a couple of ways to form the present tense, and I demonstrated two of them here. So we can say "eat" or "doesn't" or "is". We can also say "is singing".
So when you generally have something that has "is" and "ing" in it, means it's happening right now. It's happening in the present tense. So yeah, those are two of the ways to form the present. If the verb is kind of unadorned, if it's kind of plain, "I eat a donut.", not "I was eating a donut."
or "I ate a donut." or "I will eat a donut." if it's just kind of on its own like this, it's probably gonna be in the present tense. Likewise, if you see the word "is" and then "ing", that also means it's in the present tense. That's what you gotta know about the present tense.
It's happening now. You can learn anything. David, out.
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