The Simple Verb Tense: A Complete Guide

What is the simple tense?

The simple tense is a verb tense in English grammar used with verb conjugation for standard actions in the past, present, and future, as well as regularly repeated actions. The simple tense is itself divided by time into the past simple tense, present simple tense, and future simple tense.

The simple tense is the most basic verb tense, and because of this, it has the fewest rules and conjugation. For example, the present simple often uses the verb’s root form, or bare infinitive form, which means you don’t have to change or add anything to conjugate it correctly.

However, pay close attention to the correct word order in English when using negatives and questions, even in the simple tense. Negatives and questions use special rules for word order, which we explain below.