Present simple vs present progresive

Simple present

Su formación es muy fácil, se utiliza la forma verbal en presente. Por ejemplo:

Susan lives in London- (Susan vive en Londres).

Present continuous

Se utiliza el auxiliar to be más el el verbo principal, acabada en -ing. Por ejemplo:

I am going to the cinema (Estoy yendo al cine)

Diferencias de uso

La diferencia es muy clara, el present continuous indica acciones que pasan mientras hablas, el
present simple indica acciones habituales o permanentes. Por ejemplo:

Present simple

Peter goes to the supermarket on Saturdays

(Peter va al supermercado los sábados)

Present progresive

Peter is driving to his office now.

Peter está conduciendo hacia su oficina ahora

I am starting - i am not starting- am i starting?

-Present simple

Para formar el pasado simple con verbos regulares, usamos el infinitivo y añadimos la terminación
“-ed”. La forma es la misma para todas las personas (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)

1. Para verbos que terminan en una “e”, sólo añadimos “-d”.

Ejemplos:
 change → changed

believe → believed

2. Si el verbo termina en una vocal corta y una consonante (excepto “y” o “w”), doblamos la
consonante final.

Ejemplos:

stop → stopped

commit → committed

3. Con verbos que terminan en una consonante y una “y”, se cambia la “y” por una “i”.

Ejemplos:

study → studied

try → tried

1. Para verbos que terminan en una “e”, sólo añadimos “-d”.

Ejemplos:

change → changed

believe → believed

2. Si el verbo termina en una vocal corta y una consonante (excepto “y” o “w”), doblamos la
consonante final.

Verb Past simple

  was (I, he, she, it)

be
  were (you, we, they)

do  did
 

have  had
 
TAG QUESTIONS

¿Cómo se construyen las question tags?

Lo primero es tener en cuenta el sentido de la frase:
Si la frase es positiva, la question tag será negativa.

Si la frase es negativa, la question tag será positiva.

👉 You know how to cook, don’t you?

👉 You don’t know how to cook, do you?

La estructura de la frase será:

Verbo auxiliar + pronombre personal.

A veces podemos ver los verbos auxiliares en la oración principal y otras no. Vamos a ver ambos
casos.
👉 El verbo auxiliar APARECE en la oración.

Verbo ‘to be’ (present & past continuous)

He is sleeping, isn’t he?

You are working this week, aren’t you?
She was ill last week, wasn’t she?
They were eating, weren’t they?
Present & past perfect

You have met my sister, haven’t you?

She has eaten my cake, hasn’t she?
You had spoken to Mary, hadn’t you?
Will & modal verbs

It will be fine, won’t it?

She won’t tell anybody, will she?
You can’t take sugar, can you?
I should study hard, shouldn’t I?
He must be so sad, musn’t he?
👉 El verbo auxiliar NO APARECE en la oración.

Present & past simple

She runs really fast, doesn’t she? (She does run)

They live in Belgium, don’t they? (They do live)
You ate my biscuit, didn’t you? (You did eat)
It rained last night, didn’t it? (It did rain)

¡Lo que más nos confunde!

Have, have to & have got
He has a hamster, doesn’t he?
He has got a hamster, hasn’t he?
They have to eat, don’t they?
They have got to eat, haven’t they

Casos especiales (handle with care) 🔥

Con ‘I am’, siempre se usa la question tag ‘aren’t I?

I am the best student in the class, aren’t I?

Con el imperativo siempre se usa ‘will you’, tanto si la oración tiene sentido positivo o negativo.

Pass me that pen, will you?

Don’t be late, will you?

Con la expresión ‘Let’s’, siempre se usa el question tag ‘shall we’:

Let’s have lunch, shall we?

VERB TO BE
VERB TO BE PRESENT CONTINOUS

Se utiliza:

 Con frecuencia, para describir el contexto en una historia escrita en pasado, e.g. "The
sun was shining and the birds were singing as the elephant came out of the jungle. The
other animals were relaxing in the shade of the trees, but the elephant moved very
quickly. She was looking for her baby, and she didn't notice the hunter who was
watching her through his binoculars. When the shot rang out, she was running towards
the river..."

 para describir una acción incompleta que se vio interrumpida por otra acción o evento,
e.g. "I was having a beautiful dream when the alarm clock rang."

 para expresar un cambio de opinión: e.g. "I was going to spend the day at the beach but
I've decided to get my homework done instead."

 con 'wonder', para formular una petición muy educada: e.g. "I was wondering if you could
baby-sit for me tonight."

Ejemplos
  They were waiting for the bus when the accident happened.

 Caroline was skiing when she broke her leg.

 When we arrived he was having a bath.

 When the fire started I was watching television.

Nota: con los verbos que no suelen conjugarse en "past continuous" se emplea normalmente el
"simple past".

Formación del "past continuous"

El "past continuous" de cualquier verbo está compuesto de dos partes: el pasado del verbo "to be"
(was/were) y la raíz del verbo principal +ing.

Sujeto +was/wer +raíz + ing

e

They were watching

Afirmativa

She was reading

Negativa

She wasn't reading

Interrogativa

Was she reading?

Interrogativa negativa

Wasn't she reading?

To play, "past continuous"