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Hello and welcome to my presentation
on the Present Simple in English.
I want to look at two things today, first
our general conception of time,
as human beings and also as native
speakers of English,
but also at some examples of
the Present Simple, to try to find
some general rules that you can remember
that all Present Simple examples share.
So, first let's just get a little bit philosophical
and take a look at our conception of time
as human beings.
So, most language speakers in the world split
time into three parts; generally
we consider there is the "now",
which is the exact moment we're speaking,
and we think of.. most people think of a line
being the past, and the future
time.
So, the past and the future. We think
that everything before the moment now is the past
and everything after the moment now is the future.
So, this is generally what we use
when we're doing grammar in English, or
any language. We consider "How does our grammar
relate to this line? Where are we on this line?
Are we in the past? Are we in the future?
Are we now? Are we around now?
Before now? After now?" Etc.
The Present Simple is not this complicated
(maybe why it's called Present Simple).
We don't consider the "time" element
of the Present Simple, or if we do,
it's something coincidental, it's not
something necessary to this grammar, to consider
this time-line, but we'll see that in a second.
So let's now consider four examples
four examples of the Present Simple in English.
So, my first example:
"Mind your head."
So, this is an example of the Present Simple
that we can find, for example,
under stairs.. or perhaps in a restaurant
when you have a low roof
and you don't want to hit your head, you'll have a sign
saying mind your head.
Second example:
"Water boils at 100 degrees."
So, this is a fact
we all know this, we're taught this in school.
It's something that's general knowledge.
Next example:
"I play tennis every weekend."
This is something that's true for me,
I do play tennis every weekend, it's part of my life,
It's a regular activity that I do.
The fourth example:
"We leave from Montparnasse...
... at 7am."
So, perhaps you're making travel arrangements,
you're explaining to your partner
what time the train leaves tomorrow,
or on the day that you're leaving,
but we leave from Montparnasse at 7am.
So, let's first of all look at
the verb in the sentence; we can identify the verb
in each sentence.
The first verb is: "mind"
The second verb: "boil"
In this case: "boils"
Third verb: "play"
And the fourth: "leave"
So, "to mind", "to boil", "to play" and "to leave"
So, the first thing to notice is that
we have in two sentences what's called
a "time reference".
So, in both of these sentences,
we have a time reference.
That is, "every weekend",
and "at 7am", these are time references.
Well, if we look at the first two sentences,
we don't have a time reference.
"Mind your head" doesn't have a time reference.
We don't say "now", or "at the moment",
or "later", or "yesterday".
There's no need for a time reference,
and in fact that's the first thing we can notice,
about the Present Simple, is
a time reference is unnecessary.
So, we can use a time reference,
if we want to, or if we feel like it's important,
but it's not necessary. Here we can see
"Mind your head", there's no time reference.
"Water boils at 100 degrees"
Not now, or later, or yesterday,
there's no time reference here,
after the sentence.
Here, I play tennis every weekend.
If we want, we could delete
"every weekend"
and we just say "I play tennis".
This is a correct sentence, we don't change
the grammar by changing the time reference,
or deleting the time reference.
It's the same, "I play tennis every weekend".
We don't lose any meaning;
we maybe lose a little bit of focus on time,
but the sentence is correct.
So, the time reference is unnecessary.
We can say the same thing about this sentence,
"We leave from Montparnasse at 7am."
We could easily just say,
"We leave from Montparnasse."
That's all. So what can we say then
about these four sentences that
links them together?
Well, "Mind your head", there's no time reference,
it's not about time, it's not about
now or yesterday, it's just a general truth,
or a general fact.
As well, "Water boils at 100 degrees",
it's a general truth, or a fact.
"I play tennis" or "I play tennis every weekend",
it's a general truth; it's not something
specific to time, we don't need to have
a time reference, we can just say "I play tennis".
It's a general truth about myself.
"We leave from Montparnasse", or
"We leave from Montparnasse at 7am",
again a general truth; it's a fact.
So, we can say anything in the Present Simple
is something we consider to be
a fact, or a general truth.
Something that is a general truth or fact,
and that does not require a time reference.
Another thing to consider about time references
is: If we add a time reference,
if we say, for example,
"Water boils at 100 degrees now."
We really change the sentence by adding
this time reference.
We changed it to something where "boils"
is not appropriate. We must change the verb
now to accomodate this word "now"; this time reference.
So actually, what we could say is:
"If you want to add a time reference...
...be careful!"
This is something that will be very important
in later grammar lessons.
We'll see that when you add a time reference
to the Present, it can sometimes
change the grammar.
This doesn't happen in some languages, for example:
In French, you can add "now" or
"at the moment" or "every day"
or nothing and it doesn't change the grammar,
but in English, it really does.
If you want to add a time reference,
you must be careful.
Ok, so next time we'll look at some
more complex grammar that involves time.