Level 1 - Using the simple present. How to use the simple present tense. Downloadable Worksheets. Entry 1 & 2 - Past, present or future? An activity in sorting out past, present and future messages.

In Wolf Hall, Hillary Mantel uses it to pull the distant past over the threshold of the present, creating the present tense as the new tense du jour for the historical novel (“He turns his head ...

Present simple We use the present simple tense for things that we do regularly and for facts, habits, truths and permanent situations. We often use time expressions like every day, once a week, on ...

But ultimately it’s the same reason that the simple present is often used in jokes and stories. There’s a certain vividness to it that’s just lacking for more convoluted verb forms.