Teaching English Grammar

What to Teach and How to Teach it

Jim Scrivener

MACMILLAN BOOKS FOR TEACHERS

Series Editor: Adrian Underhill

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 23 Present simple: affirmative

23 Present simple: affirmative

Form

I / You / We / They live

in Prague.
He / She / It lives

There is an -s ending on the verb for third person singular.

Daily routines
The -s ending and spelling 1) Tell or elicit a story using board pictures or flashcards getting students to
repeat each sentence.
• We use -es when the base form ends in /s/, /z/, /ʃ/ or /tʃ/.
discusses; rises; washes; catches. Diego wakes up every day at 7.30. He gets up at 7.45. He has a shower, brushes
his teeth and puts on his clothes. He leaves his house at 8.15. He walks to the bus
• We use -ies (to replace the y) when the base form ends in a consonant
stop and waits for the number 166 bus, etc.
followed by y.
fly flies, carry carries. 2) Ask students to recap and retell the whole story at various points.

• Note also. 3) Elicit a second very similar story for a different character (Brigitte wakes up
go goes, do does, have has. every day at 10 . . .).

Variation: weekly routines

Presentation Joanna drives to London every Thursday. She meets her mother and they play
tennis together. She sleeps at her mother’s house. She drives back home on Sunday
morning, etc.

Practice
Spelling and pronunciation
Make sure your students get some basic activities that focus on spelling and
pronunciation, including all the differently spelt –s endings (especially -s, -es,
y -ies) and pronunciations ( /s/, /z/ and /iz/ ). Simple discrimination and sorting
games are often suitable; write three columns on the board labelled /s/, /z/ and /iz/
and call out verbs. Students should come to the board and place the word in the
correct column (with discussion, listening to teacher’s model again and teacher
feedback where useful).

Diary
Make a diary of someone’s daily / weekly routine using single words for entries
(tennis, shops). Elicit sentences about the routine. (He goes to the shops every
Thursday.) Get students to make their own diaries and repeat the task in pairs,
using I go. . . .

102
 23 Present simple: affirmative 23 Present simple: affirmative

Soap opera I usually play in defence.

Create an imaginary ‘soap opera’ with varied stereotypical characters. Elicit from The Blue Café closes on Mondays.
students the different lifestyles and routines of these characters. (Anita works at
the laundrette. She smokes 50 cigarettes a day.) Past Now Future
✘✘ ✘✘✘ ✘ ✘✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘
Spot the lies game
Read out ten present simple sentences about yourself. Eight should be true and
two false (I read three newspapers every day). Students must guess which sentences 2) Permanent situations, truths and things believed to be true: things that happen
are false. all the time. Things that seem permanently true and don’t have any obvious
beginning or end.
Guess the job Here the land rises and falls in gentle hills.
Read out sentences describing a person’s life. (I walk a lot. I carry a heavy bag. The river flows in a south-westerly direction.
I knock on doors.) Who can guess the job first? My sister lives next door.

Link to collocations Past Now Future

Teach the present simple alongside common verb–noun collocations for
household routines (She cleans the windows / tidies the toys / makes the beds).

Concept questions 3) States, senses and feelings that are generally true, using verbs such as believe,
know, live, have, feel, like, taste, etc.
• Ildiko works in the bank. Has Ildiko got a job? (Yes) What is her job? (She
We live at 23 Brookfield Avenue.
works in the bank) Does she work there on Monday? (Yes, probably) Tuesday?
I feel sorry for him.
Wednesday? etc. Is she in the bank NOW? (Maybe, we don’t know)
• Henri plays football. What sport does Henri like? (Football ) Does he play Past Now Future
often? (Probably) Is he playing football NOW? (Probably not – but we don’t
know)
• Ice melts at 0º. Is this a fact? (Yes) Is it always true? (Yes) Was it true last
4) States, senses and feelings that are happening around now – believe, know,
week? (Yes) Was it true ten thousand years ago? (Yes) Will be it be true in the
have, feel, like, taste, etc.
year 3000? (Yes)
Your hair feels so soft.
This tea tastes funny.
Meaning and use I don’t trust Hillary.
Core meaning Past Now Future
Things which we think of as generally true and unlimited in time ie without a
✘
beginning or an ending. Despite its name, the present simple can actually refer to
the past, present and / or future (and it isn’t very simple).
5) Timetabled or planned events in the future.
Uses
The match starts at 3 o’clock.
We use the present simple to talk about . . . The London train gets in at 10.05.
1) Habits, routines, repeated actions: things that are done usually, often, regularly,
occasionally, sometimes, etc and things done on certain days or occasions. 6) The future after the words when or if (when will cannot be used).
I always get the eight o’clock train. Just buzz me when the client arrives.
I can send it to you by email if you give me your address.
Unit 57 First conditional
 23 Present simple: affirmative 23 Present simple: affirmative

7) Newspaper headlines (to make a past event seem more ‘live’). your finger, saying ‘ssss’ or pointing at a large ‘s’ on a poster you’ve placed
President bans Union next to the board.
8) Live commentary especially of sports events. • Students add an unnecessary auxiliary verb: ✗ I am live here.
Beckham kicks to Ronaldo.
• Students use do and does unnecessarily: When used by low level
9) Jokes and anecdotes. students, auxiliary do / does is usually inappropriate in affirmative present
This bear walks into a petrol station and says . . . simple statements: She does walk to school. However, it is, in fact, possible if
the speaker wants to emphasise the truth of what he is saying, especially to
Using the present simple to talk about things happening NOW disagree with a previous speaker: A: Omar doesn’t live in London. B: He does
Other than uses (4) and (8) above, the present simple does not usually refer to live there! NB The auxiliary verb (do/does) is stressed.
things happening NOW. We normally use the present progressive for actions
happening NOW and for events ‘around now’ that are limited in duration with a
• Students mispronounce the -s ending: The distinction between /s/ and /z/
is not typically a problem for speakers of many mother tongues (maybe
beginning and end. because it’s actually harder to say the endings with the wrong phoneme – and
Unit 30 Present progressive contrasted with present simple it doesn’t make a big difference to communication even if you get it wrong).
However, the /ɪz/ ending does cause some trouble. Students may use it to
Pronunciation pronounce many -s endings eg cook /kʊkɪz/ walks /wɔːkɪz/. Idea: Help them
by pointing out that words like cooks and walks are one syllable but they are
The –s ending using two.
We pronounce the third person singular -s ending in three different ways: /s/, /z/
and /ɪz/.
Teaching tip: verb tables
The verb form used in present simple is the base form is also known as the
• /s/ when the base form ends with unvoiced consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ (slips,
‘infinitive without to’. Base forms are listed in the first column of a standard verb
waits, likes, laughs).
table.
• /z/ when the base form ends in a vowel or one of these voiced consonants: /b/,
/d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/ (sees, knows, rubs, rides, digs, gives, breathes,
hums, grins, rings, calls, stirs).
1 2 3
• /ɪz/ when the base form ends with /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/. We also use the -es buy bought bought
spelling (misses, fizzes, washes, catches, judges).
drive drove driven
• Does is pronounced /dʌz/ or /dəz/. Says is pronounced/sez/.
eat ate eaten
Contractions
If your students are learning British English pronunciation, teach the contracted
forms (don’t, doesn’t) as the standard forms – rather than introducing the Draw students’ attention to such verb tables in their coursebook or grammar
uncontracted forms (do not, does not) first and only later showing the contraction. book (they are usually in the back). Point out that the first column shows the base
form and can help them select verbs, form the present simple and spell them
Watch out for these problems . . . correctly.
• Students use present progressive instead of present simple: ✗ I
smoking a lot. ✗ He living in China.

• Students omit the third person -s ending: ✗ Maria like chocolate. ✗ He

work in a cafe. Idea: Students will omit the -s ending. Don’t worry that you
taught it badly; it’s simply something that takes a long time to become natural.
Try gentle reminders when they forget: drawing an ‘s’ shape in the air with
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