Which ending is used to form the third person singular present tense in English verbs?

Which ending is used to form the third person singular present tense in English verbs?

• A. S
• B. Ed
• C. Ing
• D. Er

Answer: (A)

The part that marks the third person singular present tense is the ending added to the base verb. For most verbs, you attach an s to form he/she/it actions: walk → walks, run → runs. In some spellings you use -es instead, as in pushes or watches, to fit pronunciation rules. Be aware that a few verbs are irregular and don’t follow this simple rule, producing forms like is, has, does. The other endings shown serve different purposes: -ed is for past tense or participles, -ing for present participles, and -er has different grammatical uses (such as forming adjectives or nouns), not the present-tense suffix. So the ending that indicates the third person singular present tense is the s ending.

The part that marks the third person singular present tense is the ending added to the base verb. For most verbs, you attach an s to form he/she/it actions: walk → walks, run → runs. In some spellings you use -es instead, as in pushes or watches, to fit pronunciation rules. Be aware that a few verbs are irregular and don’t follow this simple rule, producing forms like is, has, does. The other endings shown serve different purposes: -ed is for past tense or participles, -ing for present participles, and -er has different grammatical uses (such as forming adjectives or nouns), not the present-tense suffix. So the ending that indicates the third person singular present tense is the s ending.