Hi Everybody! In our first lesson, we are going to learn Present Simple. I decided to teach you this tense because I notice that some of my intermediate students are still confused about the usage of this basic tense. Let’s start our lesson!
The Present Simple Tense (also called the Simple Present Tense)
Simple present tense with ‘be’: The verb ‘be’ is different from the other verbs in this tense. Let’s look at ‘be’ first: Here’s the positive form (positive means a normal sentence, not a negative or a question. This is sometimes called ‘affirmative’):
I’m Scottish.For examples:
She’s hungry.
They’re always late.
Next, here’s the negative. It’s very easy. You only add ‘not’:
I’m not cold.
He isn’t from Spain.
We aren’t at home.
Here’s the ‘yes / no’ question form: Yes / No Questions am I ? are you ? is he ? is she ? is it ? are we ? are they ? For examples:
Am I next in the queue?
Are you from Tokyo?
Is he at the library at the moment?
If you’d like to make a ‘wh’ question, you just put the question word at the front: Wh Questions Where am I ? What are you ? Why is he ? Who is she ? When are we ? How are they ? For examples:
Where are you from?
Who is that girl?
Why are they still at work?
Present simple tense with other verbs: With all other verbs, we make the present simple in the same way. The positive is really easy. It’s just the verb, with an extra ‘s’ if the subject is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. Let’s take the verb ‘play’ as an example: Positive (of ‘play’) I play you play he plays she plays it plays we play they play For examples:
I write stories every week.
He likes chocolate.
They usually go to the cinema on Fridays.
Don’t forget the ‘s’! Even really advanced students do this! For a few verbs, there is a spelling change with ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’ before the ‘s’. For example, ‘study’ becomes ‘studies’. There are also few verbs which are irregular in the present simple:
‘have’ becomes ‘has’
‘do’ becomes ‘does’
‘go’ becomes ‘goes’
To make the negative form, you need to use ‘do not’ (don’t) or ‘ does not’ (doesn’t):
You don’t study very much.For examples:
Julie doesn’t like sport.
We don’t live in London.
We use ‘do’ or ‘does’ before the subject to make the ‘yes / no’ question: Yes / No questions do I play ? do you play ? does he play ? does she play ? does it play ? do we play ? do they play ? For examples:
Do you work in an office?
Does John play cricket every weekend?
Do they like travelling?
Just like with ‘be’, if you’d like to make a ‘wh’ question, you put the question word at the front: Wh Questions Where do I play ? What do you play ? Why does he play ? Who does she play ? When do we play ? How do they play ? For examples:
Where do you live?
What does she like to eat?
Why do they work so hard?
Now let us see a video about Present Simple to ease our understanding.
Hi all learners! In this second lesson we are going to focus on one of the most confusing tenses in English which is Present Perfect. Let us start our lesson!
Present Perfect
(for clearer image click on the pic)
We use this tense for unfinished and finished actions:
Unfinished Actions
We use this tense when we want to talk about unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present. Usually we use it to say ‘how long’ an action or state has continued with ‘since’ and ‘for’. Often, we use stative verbs in this situation:
I’ve known Karen since 1994.
She’s lived in London for three years.
‘Since’ and ‘For’
We use ‘since’ with a fixed time in the past (2004, April 23rd, last year, two hours ago). The fixed time can be another action, indicated with the past simple (since I was at school, since I arrived):
I’ve known Sam since 1992.
She’s been here since 2pm.
I’ve liked chocolate since I was a child.
We use ‘for’ with a period of time (2 hours, three years, six months):
I’ve known Julie for ten years.
I’ve been hungry for hours.
She’s had a cold for a week.
Finished Actions
Life experience
(we don’t say when the experience happened, just sometime in the past)
I have been to Tokyo.
She has lived in Germany.
They have visited Paris three times.
We have never seen that film.
Have you ever read ‘War and Peace’?
A finished action with a result in the present (focus on result)
I’ve lost my keys (so I can’t get into my house).
She’s hurt her leg (so she can’t play tennis today).
They’ve missed the bus (so they will be late).
I’ve cooked dinner (so you should come and eat).
With an unfinished time word (this month, this week, today, in the last year)
I haven’t seen her this month.
She’s drunk three cups of coffee today.
This week they’ve been shopping four times.
Note: We can’t use the present perfect with a finished time word:
I’ve seen him yesterday.
‘Been’ and ‘Gone’
In this tense, we use both ‘been’ and ‘gone’ as the past participle of ‘go’, but in slightly different circumstances.
Been
We use ‘been’ (often when we talk about ‘life experience’) to mean that the person being talked about has visited the place, and come back. Notice the preposition ‘to’:
I’ve been to Paris (in my life, but now I’m in London, where I live).
She has been to school today (but now she’s back at home).
They have never been to California.
Gone
We use ‘gone’ (often when we are talking about an action with a result in the present) to mean that the person is at the place now:
‘Where’s John?’ ‘He’s gone to the shops’ (he’s at the shops now).
Julie has gone to Mexico (now she’s in Mexico).
They’ve gone to Japan for three weeks (now they’re in Japan).
Now, a video to make you understand better about this problematic tense!
Hi learners now we come to the third lesson. We often hear that sentences written in active voice are clearer and more effective than sentences written in passive voice. But does that mean we should always avoid passive voice? Let’s start by looking at the table of active and passive voice later we are going to discuss the meaning of the terms active voice and passive voice.
Active Vs Passive
The table below is the rules to construct passive and active voice based on different tenses
What is active voice?
When a sentence is in active voice, the subject does (or did or will do) the action expressed in the verb:
The joggers train together every Saturday.
[The joggers do the training.]
Taylor went skydiving for his birthday.
[Taylor did the skydiving.]
Maneesha will perform her first solo next week.
[Maneesha will do the performing.]
Sometimes a verb has a direct object, which is the direct receiver of the action expressed in the verb. Ask what? or whom? after the verb to find the direct object:
Maneesha will perform her first solo next week.
[Maneesha will perform what? Her first solo.]
Yvon will drive her home after dinner.
[Yvon will drive whom? Her.]
In an active voice sentence, then, the subject is the doer of the action, and the direct object (if any) is the receiver of the action.
What is passive voice?
In passive voice, however, the subject does not do the action expressed in the verb:
The apple was eaten by Sarah.
[The apple did not do the eating.]
The party was planned in great detail.
[The party did not do the planning.]
The sculpture was completed in time for the ceremony.
[The sculpture did not do the completing.]
In these passive sentences, the subjects apple, party and sculpture are not doing the action—they are receiving the action.
The difference between active and passive voice is simply this, then: in active voice, the subject is the doer of the action, while in passive voice, the subject is the receiver of the action.
Why is active voice better?
Active voice is clearer and more direct, because it puts the doer of the action first and follows a logical order:
Doer of action + action + receiver of action (if any) Also, an active voice sentence is always shorter than the same sentence in passive voice. And of course, active voice is active—so it makes our writing more dynamic and energetic. For these reasons, it is usually better to write in active voice—and to rewrite any passive voice sentences to make them active.
Do I need to avoid passive voice entirely?
No, passive voice makes good sense in the following situations:
a) when the doer of the action is unknown:
The lights were left on.[You don’t know who left them on.]
b) when the doer of the action is less important than the receiver:
The package was delivered this morning.
[It doesn’t matter who brought it.]
c) when the doer of the action is someone you don’t want to name:
I was given the wrong directions.
[You don’t want to blame anyone in particular.]
The video below is the brief explanation of our lesson.
ENGLISH FOR INTERMEDIATE LEARNERS (EFOIL) 
