In this ESL grammar lesson, students practice correcting the errors in various present tense sentences. This is very helpful for teaching students to recognize their own errors and use the present tense correctly.
This lesson will help you understand and practice the present tense through error correction exercises. Correcting errors is a powerful way to reinforce your understanding and improve your accuracy in using the present tense.
ESL Grammar: Common Errors in Present Tense
Before we dive into the exercises, let’s look at some common errors made when using the present tense:
- Incorrect Verb Forms: Using the wrong form of the verb with the subject.
- Incorrect: He go to school.
- Correct: He goes to school.
- Omitting -s or -es: Forgetting to add -s or -es for third-person singular subjects.
- Incorrect: She like apples.
- Correct: She likes apples.
- Using “do” instead of “does”: Using the incorrect auxiliary verb in negative sentences and questions.
- Incorrect: He don’t play soccer.
- Correct: He doesn’t play soccer.
The English grammar lesson below focuses on correcting errors in the present tense, as this is a good way to help students recognize their own errors in the future. tOur series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.
This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on basic English tenses (present tense, present continuous tense, past tense, future tense) in our comprehensive, beginner-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 2: Tenses).