The simple present, present simple, or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes certain information about aspect in addition to the present time. The simple present is the most commonly used verb form in English, accounting for more than half of verbs in spoken English.

It is called "simple" because its basic form consists of a single word (like write or writes), in contrast with other present tense forms such as the present progressive (is writing) and present perfect (has written). For nearly all English verbs, the simple present is identical to the base form (dictionary form) of the verb, except when the subject is third-person singular, in which case the ending -(e)s is added. There are a few verbs with irregular forms, the most notable being the copula be, which has the simple present forms of am, is, and are.

For pronouns I, you, we, they, there is no modification for verbs.

For pronouns he, she, it, a suffix is added following these rules:

For verbs that end in -o, -ch, -sh, -s, -x, or -z, the suffix -es is added.

Examples:

For verbs that end in a consonant + y, the letter y is replaced by the suffix -ies.

Examples: