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The form described in this section is used with third person singular subjects as the simple present tense (in the indicative mood): He writes novels all the time. (This tense has other uses besides referring to present time; for example, in I'll be glad if he writes , it refers to future time.)
The modal verbs (can, must, etc.) have only a single form, with no addition of -s for the third person singular. The above refers to the indicative mood of the simple present; for the formation and use of the subjunctive mood, see English subjunctive. (The defective verb beware has no simple present indicative, although it can be used in the ...
The simple present or present simple is a form that combines present tense with "simple" (neither perfect nor progressive) aspect. In the indicative mood it consists of the base form of the verb, or the -s form when the subject is third-person singular (the verb be uses the forms am, is, are).
The present indicative of most verbs in modern English has the same form as the infinitive, except for the third-person singular form, which takes the ending -[e]s. The verb be has the forms am, is, are. For details, see English verbs. For the present subjunctive, see English subjunctive.
they are (third-person plural, and third-person singular) Other verbs in English take the suffix -s to mark the present tense third person singular, excluding singular 'they'. In many languages, such as French , the verb in any given tense takes a different suffix for any of the various combinations of person and number of the subject.
Present infinitive Present indicative Singular persons Plural persons 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd Germanic Proto-Germanic *wesaną *immi *izi *isti *izum *izud *sindi Anglo-Saxon wesan: eom eart is sind sindon English be: am are art 1 be'st 1: is are 11: are German sein: bin bist ist sind seid sind Yiddish transliterated: זיין zayn: בין bin ...
In Latin, most verbs have four principal parts.For example, the verb for "to carry" is given as portō – portāre – portāvī – portātum, where portō is the first-person singular present active indicative ("I carry"), portāre is the present active infinitive ("to carry"), portāvī is the first-person singular perfect active indicative ("I carried"), and portātum is the neuter supine.
The other inflected parts of the verb – the third person singular present indicative in -[e]s, and the present participle and gerund form in -ing – are formed regularly in most cases. There are a few exceptions: the verb be has irregular forms throughout the present tense; the verbs have , do , and say have irregular -[e]s forms; and ...