«Michael buys the newspaper every morning»
A verb tense of the English language , called simple present in that language, is known as present simple . It is one of the present tenses, which is generally used to refer to everyday actions .
General characteristics
The present simple, therefore, allows us to refer to routines or activities that are generally carried out on a daily basis . It is also linked to permanence over time and indubitable statements that are always true .
It is important to clarify that, when “I” , “you” or “we” is used, the lexical base of the verb is used: “I work…” , “You work…” , “We work…” . On the other hand, with “she” , “he” or “it” , it is necessary to add a letter S to the end of the verb: “She works…” , “He works…” , “It works…” .
Examples
Let's start by looking at the following example sentence: “My mother lives in Brazil .” This is a common use of the present simple. As can be seen, the speaker indicates that his mother has her residence established in Brazilian territory: that is, the woman continues living there while her son utters the statement.
“He drinks a lot of beer” is another example of using the present simple. In this case, the expression can be translated as "He drinks too much beer" , alluding to a harmful habit that an individual has.
“I work in a tech company” (“I work at a technology company”), “We play tennis on Saturdays” (“We play tennis on Saturdays”) y “Michael buys the newspaper every morning” (“Michael buys the newspaper every morning.”) son otras prayers desarrolladas en presente simple.
Daily activities
Thanks to the use of the present simple, we can give our interlocutor a general idea of our habits, our work or the things we usually do on weekends, among other actions that are repeated with a certain frequency over time.
The most important thing is to understand that the name of this tense does not indicate that the actions are being carried out by the subject at the moment of speech; On the contrary, that is not its purpose, but rather to relate what it does in certain periods.
In the examples in the previous section we saw more than one sentence that responds to this criterion: that of the tennis games, that of the morning newspaper and, the one that we are interested in dealing with again in this case, that of the man who drinks too much beer. What sets you apart from this group? Which is the only one in which an adverb of frequency has not been specified that tells us "how often" the action is performed.
When we encounter a sentence of this type, we must rely on the context to understand which adverb is the most appropriate. Since we are talking about a general habit, which the subject probably repeats every time he goes out with his friends, we can use "usually" or even "always", although the latter is not entirely precise, since he does not do it all the time, but "at every party", " whenever he goes to a party."
«My mother lives in Brazil»
Indubitable statements
The present simple tries to deceive us once again with its name, when its use serves to affirm things that are always true. Let's look at a practical example: "Fire melts ice." This phenomenon always occurs, since this is what nature dictates, and it is not linked to a specific point in time, but rather it has been occurring since the origin of our planet and will do so until its last moment.
It should be noted that the undeniable character of a sentence in the present simple is not always related to science, but can be relatively subjective. For example, if we say "Women take better care of their children than men" the function is the same, but the topic can be debated.