Simple Present, Present Continuous, and Simple Past Tense

Beige and Orange Quirky Illustration Sustainable Business Presentation (6)

⭐ Introduction

In Grade 8, students learn three important tenses in English: Simple Present, Present Continuous, and Simple Past Tense. These tenses help students talk about daily activities, actions happening now, and events that happened in the past.
Although all of them are important, this lesson especially focuses on the Simple Past Tense, because students often use it to tell stories, past experiences, and historical events.

1️⃣ Simple Present Tense

✔ Function:

To talk about daily activities, habits, facts, and general truths.

✔ Patterns:

(+) Subject + V1 / V1+s/es
(-) Subject + do/does not + V1
(?) Do/Does + subject + V1?

✔ Examples:

I study every day.
She plays the piano.
They don’t like spicy food.
Does he live in Surabaya?

2️⃣ Present Continuous Tense

✔ Function:

To talk about actions happening right now or temporary activities.

✔ Patterns:

(+) Subject + am/is/are + V-ing
(-) Subject + am/is/are + not + V-ing
(?) Am/Is/Are + subject + V-ing?

✔ Examples:

I am studying English now.
She is eating lunch at the moment.
They are not playing football.
Are you watching TV?

3️⃣ Simple Past Tense (Main Focus)

Simple Past Tense is the most important tense in Grade 8, and will be used often to tell stories, past activities, and experiences.

✔ Function:

To talk about:

Finished actions in the past
Past habits
Events that happened at a specific time

✔ Time Expressions (Signal Words):

yesterday
last night / last week / last year
two days ago
in 2010
when I was a child
this morning (if the time is already finished)

✔ Patterns:

(+) Positive:

Subject + V2
Examples:

I went to school yesterday.
She watched a movie last night.
They played badminton two days ago.

(-) Negative:

Subject + did not + V1
Examples:

I did not go to school yesterday.
She did not watch the movie.
They didn’t play badminton.

(?) Question form:

Did + subject + V1 ?
Examples:

Did you go to school yesterday?
Did she cook dinner?
Did they finish the homework?

✔ Regular and Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs:

Add -ed to form past tense.

play → played
watch → watched
clean → cleaned

Irregular Verbs:

Change completely (must be memorized).

go → went
eat → ate
make → made
see → saw
buy → bought

✔ Examples in Sentences

Regular verbs:

I visited my grandmother last weekend.
She cleaned her room yesterday.

Irregular verbs:

I ate fried rice this morning.
They went to the beach last holiday.
My father bought a new phone.

✔ Short Paragraph Example (Simple Past)

My Weekend Activity

Last weekend, I went to my cousin’s house. We played games together and ate noodles for lunch. In the afternoon, we watched a movie and laughed a lot. I went home at 5 p.m. It was a fun day.

📘 Comparison Table

Tense	Function	Example
Simple Present	Daily activities & facts	I read books every day.
Present Continuous	Actions happening now	I am reading a book now.
Simple Past (focus)	Past events & activities	I read a book yesterday.