Talk About Your Job with Present Tenses

You are joining a seminar and you meet a new friend there. He is very eager to hear about your position as a Marketing Manager at a multi-national company, and you are interested in sharing your story with him.

What tense would you use in this kind of situation?

Present Tense will be the right tense that you need to use. But wait! Which Present tense? I am sure you know about Present Simple, Present Continuous, and Present Perfect. Which tense should you use?

1. Present Simple:

Present Simple is used to talk about facts and habits of your work. For example, if you want to talk about what you do at the office everyday, or what time your friend usually comes to work, you need to use Present Simple.

The formulas of Present Simple are:

a. [Subject + Verb 1 ]

Add the verb with +s or +es if the subject is one person (he, she, Mr. John, My sister) or one thing (the printer, the bus, the cat, the dog). Here are some examples of Present Simple sentences using Verb1 that is added with s/es:

  • Mr. John comes to the office every weekdays.
  • Ms. Marry always checks the email in the morning.
  • The company bus takes the employees to the office for free.

Do not add anything to the verb if the subject is more than one person (We, They, You, Mr. Mark and Ms. Guilt, Ms. John and I), and yourself (I). Here are some examples of Present Simple sentences using Verb1 without any addition:

  • We work at the factory from 8 AM to 4 PM every weekdays.
  • The directors always have a meeting at a luxurious hotel.
  • Ms. John and I go to the warehouse every weekend to check the stock of the product.
  • I arrive at the office around 8 AM in the morning.

b. [Subject + is/am/are + feeling, location, things, job position]

Use is if you want to talk about one person (My Sister, Mr. Clark, Jessica, He, She) or one thing (The bus, the printer, the lab, it, this, that). Use are if you want to talk about  more than one person (My sister and my brother, Mr. Clark and Ms. Jessica, John and I, we, you, they, these, those), and use am if you want to talk about yourself (I). Here are some examples of Present Simple sentences using is/am/are to talk about feeling, location, things, and job position.

  • John and Jessica are at the office (location)
  • The office boy is very tired (feeling)
  • These are our new printers (things).
  • Ms. Conan and Mr. Kim are the new marketing managers (job position).
  • I am at the branch (location).

2. Present Continuous

We use Present Continuous to talk about our unfinished activities such as project or something that you are doing now. For example? Right now, “your are taking an online course.” This is the example of how you use Present Continuous because right now, you have not finished the online course. You are still taking it.

The formula for Present Continuous is:

[Subject + is/am/are + verb-ing]

You remember when to use is/am/are, don’t you?  Please scroll up to learn how to use is/am/are from the previous example. Here are some examples of using Present Continuous to talk about what you are doing right now.

  • Our manager is having a meeting right now.
  • The bus is taking the passengers to their destinations.
  • Mr. Billy and Ms. Shinta are revising a report.
  • Sorry, I can talk now! I am driving!

Note: Present Continues means that the activity is still being done, it has not finished, but it WILL finish in the future. So, please do not tell your girlfriend or your wife  “I am loving you” because it means that you will not love them anymore in the future.

Present Continuous can also be used to talk about our future plan. If you have made a plan and you will execute it, you can use present continuous too. The formula is the same. Here are some examples of using Present Continuous to talk about your plan.

  • I am going to see my children’s performance tonight.
  • Mr. Rod and Ms. Maa are taking the plane to New York this afternoon.
  • We are having a meeting with Ms. Lana from Lex Corp at 1PM today. Please be ready.

Present Simple VS Present Continuous

You may get confused by when to use Present Simple and Present Continuous. Well, you can see the time information. For example if you use words such as

  • Everyday
  • never
  • always
  • rarely
  • seldom
  • every weekend
  • usually,

you can use Present Simple. However, if you use the words such as

  • Right now
  • Now
  • at the moment
  • currently,

you are using Present Continuous to talk about an activity that is still on going. Now, if you use some future time information such as

  • This evening
  • at 8pm
  • next Friday,

you are using Present Continuous to talk about a future plan.

Now, you have learned about some of the most common uses of Present tenses. Are you ready to find out how far you have learned?