The present tense | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy

Hello grammarians!

Welcome to the present tense, or that which is happening right now. The present tense is how we talk about things that are happening in the present moment, like "I eat a donut." If I say that, you know, if I say it that way, it means it's happening right now in the present, as opposed to happening later in the future or before now in the past. The present tense is what's happening right now.

If you can just imagine, just put the words "right now" at the end of anything that takes place in the present, it should work. "I eat a donut right now." "Louise doesn't want a catapult right now." "The water is super cold right now." "Birdie is singing in the shower right now." All of these sentences are taking place in what we call the present.

There are a couple of ways to form the present tense, and I've demonstrated two of them here. So we can say, you know, "eat" or "doesn't" or "is," but we can also say "is singing."

So when you generally have something that has "is" and "ing" in it, it means it's happening right now; it's happening in the present tense. So yeah, those are two of the ways to form the present. If the verb is, you know, kind of unadorned, if it's kind of plain— "I eat a donut," not "I was eating a donut" or "I ate a donut" or "I will eat a donut," just "I eat a donut."

If it's just sort of on its own like this, it's probably going to be in the present tense. Likewise, if you see the word "is" and then "ing," that also means it's in the present tense. That's what you got to know about the present tense—it's happening now. You can learn anything.

Dave, it out.