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 🙂