English Tenses

To make a negative sentence in present continous, add 'not' after the helping verb is/am/are. The structure for Present Continuous Tense in Negative Form is:

Subject + is/am/are + not + verb + ing

For example:

• I am not playing football.
• He is not watching TV today.
• She is not cooking.

Negatives in present continuous tense are used when we want to deny that an action is happening right now.

Yes, we can use present continuous tense to talk about the planned or definite future events.

For example:

• We are meeting our Science teacher tomorrow.
• She is leaving for New York next week.

These two sentences shows that the plan is already made and will be fulfilled in the future. By writing or speaking a sentence about fixed future event using present continuous tense makes the plan more certain compared to using 'will' or 'shall'.

Have a look at the Past Perfect Continuous Tense examples below:

• They had been playing outside when it began to rain.
• The cats had been meowing all night.
• The mother had been preparing the meals before the guests arrived.

Passive sentences in the Simple Present Tense are the one which the subject is acted upon. In such sentences, the subject does not do the action but is being acted upon. The passive voice uses a conjugated form of the verb 'to be' along with past participle of the main verb. 

Examples:

• Returned items are inspected by the shopkeeper. 
• The stray dog is fed by everyone in the neighbourhood. 
• The book is read. 
• The meal is cooked by Rajni. 

To form questions in the Present Indefinite Tense, one can add 'do' or 'does' before the subject and the infinitive form of the verb. When asking a question using the wh-word, place the pronoun or adverb before 'do' or 'does'. 

Examples:

• Why does Mayank never answers his phone?
• Where does Nisha work?
• Do you want to go to the park?
• Does Anjali work on Saturdays?

In English, there are four types of Present Tenses. These are:

• Simple Present Tense- Subject + V1 + s/es + Object
• Present Continuous Tense - Subject + am/is/are + V1 + ing
• Present Perfect Tense- Subject + has/have + past participle
• Present Perfect Continuous Tense- Subject + has/have + been + V1 + ing

The formula for the Simple Present Tense is-  Subject + Base form of the Verb (V1) + s/es + Object

Examples of Present Simple Tense:

1) Riya writes in her notebook.

Riya - Subject

Writes - V1 + s

Notebook- Object

2) The dog lick the bone. 

Dog- Subject

Licks- V1 + s

Bone- Object

3) Mr. Simon teaches maths at a local school. 

Subject- Mr. Simon

V1 (teach) + es- Teaches

Maths- Object

In normal English it is advised to write sentences in active voice only. Since the sentence structure of active voice is simple and easy to understand for a user, unless asked, we need to prioritize writing in active voice only. It is generally preferred for straightforward communication or in Technical writing.

Active voice occurs when the subject performs an action. While on the other hand, passive voice occurs when the subject receives the action.  Normally it is recommended to use active voice in writing, as sentences get complicated in passive voice.

Two tenses in English Grammar are used to describe habits. These are Simple Present Tense and Simple Past Tense. 

Simple Present Tense is used to describe current habits. 

For Example: 

• She drinks coffee everyday. 
• He goes to the temple daily. 

Simple Past Tense is used to describe habits of the past. For example. 

• He used to jog every morning. 

• She walked to school everyday when she was a little girl.