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Besides
showing generally
accepted facts or truth and
showing habits, simple
present tense is
sometimes used
in two other quite
different ways:
1. |
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with a future time expression, to show an
action that was previously
scheduled, |
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2. |
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current slang:
to report
what another person
said. |
Detail /
Examples:
1. |
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showing
previously-scheduled actions
In English,
there are several different ways to show future
actions or situations because unlike many languages,
English does not have a
single future tense.
When arrangements for a future
action
or situation exist because they were
made in the past, the simple present tense
can be used to talk about the arrangements if a future time expression
is also used.
(If
there is no future time expression, people will usually
understand the "habit"
meaning.)
Examples:
José leaves at 9:30
tomorrow
morning.
Andrea can't go with us
next Tuesday. She
has a meeting then.
Hurry up! The meeting
begins in five
minutes!
We have plenty of time. The
movie starts at 8:30 and it's only 7:00 now.
_____________________________________
Note: In all
the examples
above, the action or situation
was scheduled
in advance. Also, every sentence has some kind of future time expression.
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2. |
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current
slang: to report what another person said
In current
slang, simple present tense is often
used to report
what
another person said--but only two verbs
are used:
be
like and go.
This strange use of present
tense is not appropriate for writing, but you may hear
it very
often in casual conversations by young
people.
Example:
Joe:
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What
happened? |
Ted:
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I was talking to Bob. l go, "Hey, man-- What's up?" and he goes, "Shut up!
I don't
want to talk to
you!" |
Joe:
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So what did you do? |
Ted:
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I'm like,
"Hey, man, how come? What'd I do?"
Then he's like, "Come on!
I know what you said about
me!" |
Joe:
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So
then what happened? |
Ted:
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So
I go, "Hey, I didn't say anything about you,
man," and he goes, "That's not what Kelly told me!" Then
I'm
like, "Hey, Bob, don't
pay any attention to Kelly. He
was probably just teasing you." |
Joe:
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So is he still mad at you? |
Ted:
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Yeah, he is. He
goes, "I don't believe you. Kelly's
my buddy. He wouldn't put me on." |
Remember: This is current slang. It's "cool" today, but it might change
tomorrow. Also, remember that this
strange use of present
tense is not
appropriate for
writing.
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