Third person singular – a big deal?

Why do teachers talk so much about the third person singular?

Because verb forms make the biggest changes from the infinitive in the third person singular in English.

But is it really such a big deal?

The good news is: NO, absolutely not!!!

OK, the verb “to be” is a tiny little bit difficult in the present

it has 3 different words

  • – am
  • – are
  • – is

“to be” has two words in the past

  • – was
  • – were

Other verbs (go, see, like, have, sleep, know, say, write etc, etc, etc) have two different words in the present

go/goes; see/sees; like/likes; have/has; sleep/sleeps; know/knows; say/says; write/writes etc etc

and one in all other verb forms:

Past: I went/didn’t go; She saw/didn’t see; My Mum liked/ didn’t like; we wrote/ didn’t write etc etc

Past perfect: I had been; John had gone; We had written (“had” doesn’t change. The main verb is always in the past participle form

Future with will: I will go; she will visit; You will write etc etc

Conditional with would: I would like; Fred would prefer; you would work

etc, etc, etc

 So!!!

It is only necessary to make these changes when using the present tenses and with “to be” in the past.

*** not exactly difficult 🙂