present simple
What a child does every day — routines, habits and the third-person -s that takes a year to stick.
From age 6Building sentences →
✏️ The pattern
- Saying it
- I play / she plays
- Saying no
- I don't play / she doesn't play
- Asking
- Do you play? / Does she play?
- Short answer
- Yes, I do. / No, she doesn't.
🗣️ Sentences a child can say
Tap any sentence to hear it. Every one uses words from a topic pack you already have.
🩹 What you will actually hear
The three mistakes that come up in every class, and what is behind each one.
She play football.She plays football.
He, she and it add -s. It is the single most-corrected ending in young-learner English.
She doesn't plays.She doesn't play.
Once doesn't takes the -s, the main verb gives it up. Only one word carries it.
Do she like apples?Does she like apples?
The -s moves to the question word. Does she, not do she.
🎯 How to teach it
- 1
Teach I and you for weeks before you touch he and she. The -s problem is created by introducing it too early.
- 2
Hang it on a real timetable. Their actual morning, with clock faces, beats any invented character.
- 3
Make the -s visible: write the verb, then add the s in a different colour every time. The eye learns before the ear.
- 4
Third person is easiest about animals and family — people the child talks about anyway, rather than grammar people.
🗂️ Topic packs that pair with this
Same structure, words your class already knows — no new vocabulary needed.
💬 Questions teachers ask
Present simple or present continuous first?
Continuous, usually. "I am running" describes what is happening in front of the child right now, which is easier to demonstrate than a habit — and it has no third-person -s to trip over.
How long before the third-person -s is automatic?
Longer than you expect — often a year of regular contact, and it slips back whenever a child is thinking hard about something else. Treat a lapse mid-story as a good sign: they were busy communicating.