ESL Helpful Handouts Page 1 of 5

Tea
The Simple Present Tense
A Review For Advanced Students

Part 1
Listed below are 6 uses of the simple present tense.

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Permanent or long-lasting situations

The Lipton Tea Company possesses a large number

of tea gardens in East Africa.

Bigelow has a tea plantation in Charleston, South

Carolina.

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Facts

Tea contains antioxidants which protect the cells of

the body.

Research suggests that black, green, and oolong

teas protect against cancer.

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Regular habits or daily routines.

The people of Nepal always drink tea with sugar.

Ethiopians have tea and bread every morning at

breakfast.

This free handout is available at http://sites.google.com/site/eslhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson.

Photos: www.morguefile.com
ESL Helpful Handouts Page 2 of 5

Tea
The Simple Present Tense
A Review For Advanced Students

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Feelings

Ashley loves a rooibos tea with cinnamon,

cardamom, sandalwood, and almond flavors.

Liam hates bottled tea drinks because they are too

sugary.

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Opinions and states of mind

Emily thinks that raspberry lemon mate tea is a

fresh aromatic tea.

Megan believes that this tea has an artificial taste.

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Timetables and schedules

At four o’clock in the afternoon, most Bolivians take

a tea break.

In the United Kingdom, afternoon tea is a light meal

taken between 3:00pm and 5:00pm.

This free handout is available at http://sites.google.com/site/eslhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson.

Photos: www.morguefile.com
ESL Helpful Handouts Page 3 of 5

Tea
The Simple Present Tense
A Review For Advanced Students

Part 2
Use the simple present tense to make affirmative statements, negative statements, and
to ask questions.

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Affirmative Statements

College students often use green tea in order to be

alert yet relaxed while studying.

A traditional chai is a blend of cardamom, cinnamon,

cloves, peppercorns, tea, milk, and honey.

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Negative Statements

The people of the Czech Republic do not drink

much tea because they prefer coffee.

Rooibos tea does not contain caffeine.

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Questions

What is your favorite blend of tea?

Does tea consumption contribute to a healthy

heart?

This free handout is available at http://sites.google.com/site/eslhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson.

Photos: www.morguefile.com
ESL Helpful Handouts Page 4 of 5

Tea
The Simple Present Tense
A Review For Advanced Students

Part 3
The form of the simple present tense changes when the subject is the third person
singular. The verb ends in s or es. To form the negative, use the auxiliary verb do.

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Add s to most verbs.

Tea grows in 25 countries around the world.

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Add es to verbs that end in s, sh, ch, x, z, o.

She carefully washes the fragile china tea cups.

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If the base form ends in consonant + y, change the y to
i and the add es.

She carefully dries the fragile china tea cups.

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Of course, be is a very irregular verb that uses the forms
am, is, are.

Sri Lanka is one of the main producers of tea.


This free handout is available at http://sites.google.com/site/eslhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson.
Photos: www.morguefile.com
ESL Helpful Handouts Page 5 of 5

Tea
The Simple Present Tense
A Review For Advanced Students


In order to form the negative of the simple present
tense, add do/does + not to the base form of all
verbs except be. Simply add not to be.

In Armenia, people usually do not add milk to their

tea.

Black tea is not the most popular tea in China.

Part 4
Practice. Match the sentence with the category in which you think it belongs. Some sentences
may match more than one category.

Category
a. Permanent or long-lasting situations
b. Facts
c. Regular habits or daily routines
d. Feelings
e. Opinions and states of mind
f. Timetables and schedules

__b__ China and India produce nearly half of the world’s tea leaves.

_____ Tea companies send buying agents to auctions in order to purchase tea.

_____ Justine loves honey-apple tea.

_____ In times of stress, Anthony believes that the caffeine in tea increases his level
of concentration.

_____ Tea plants flourish in warm, moist climates.

_____ Patricia drinks tea twice a day.

_____ Tea technologists work to improve the aroma color, and taste of tea.

_____ The people of Taiwan do not usually drink tea for breakfast.

_____ At four o’clock in the afternoon, most Bolivians take a tea break.

This free handout is available at http://sites.google.com/site/eslhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson.

Photos: www.morguefile.com