Collins Cobuild

Unit 58
The present tenses
Main points
There  are  four  present  tenses  –  present  simple  (‘I  walk’),  present
continuous (‘I am walking’), present perfect (‘I have walked’), and
present perfect continuous (‘I have been walking’).
All the present tenses are used to refer to a time which includes the
present.
Present tenses can also be used for predictions made in the present
about future events.
1
 There  are  four  tenses  which  begin  with  a  verb  in  the  present  tense.
They  are  the  present  simple,  the  present  continuous,  the  present
perfect,  and  the  present  perfect  continuous.  These  are  the  present
tenses.
2
The present simple and the present continuous are used with reference
to present time. If you are talking about the general present, or about
a regular or habitual action, you use the present simple.
George lives in Birmingham.
They often phone my mother in London.
If  you  are  talking  about  something  in  the  present  situation,  you  use
the present continuous.

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He’s playing tennis at the University.
I’m cooking the dinner.
The present continuous is often used to refer to a temporary situation.
She’s living in a flat at present.
3
 You  use  the  present  perfect  or  the  present  perfect  continuous  when
you  are  concerned  with  the  present  effects  of  something  which
happened at a time in the past, or which started in the past but is still
continuing.
Have you seen the film at the Odeon?
We’ve been waiting here since before two o’clock.
4
If you are talking about something which is scheduled or timetabled to
happen in the future, you can use the present simple tense.
The next train leaves at two fifteen in the morning.
It’s Tuesday tomorrow.
5
If you are talking about something which has been arranged for the
future, you can use the present continuous. When you use the present
continuous  like  this,  there  is  nearly  always  a  time  adverbial  like
‘tomorrow’, ‘next week’, or ‘later’ in the clause.
We’re going on holiday with my parents this year.
The Browns are having a birthday party next week.
Later on I’m speaking to Patty.
6
It is only in the main clauses that the choice of tense can be related to
a particular time. In subordinate clauses, for example in ‘if’– clauses,
time clauses, and defining relative clauses, present tenses often refer to
a future time in relation to the time in the main clause.
You can go at eleven thirty if you have finished.
Let’s have something to eat and drink before we start.

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We’ll save some food for anyone who arrives late.
7
The present simple tense normally has no auxiliary verb, but questions
and negative sentences are formed with the auxiliary ‘do’.
Do you live round here?
Does your husband do most of the cooking?
They don’t often phone during the week.
She doesn’t like being late if she can help it.

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