Third person singular (simple present)

[sveta]

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #46 "Elementary English Grammar", question 4

......... play guitar all the time.

(a) She
(b) He
(c) Us
(d) They

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #46 "Elementary English Grammar", answer 4

They play guitar all the time.

Correct answer: (d) They

Your answer was: incorrect
He play guitar all the time.
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why is the answer "they" and not "he"?

[Yankee]

Simple present tense: the verb needs an 's' in the third person singular (he/she/it verb+s), but not in the third person plural (they verb).

He plays guitar all the time.

They play guitar all the time.

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Lance]

I wish to add a bit to clarify:
The rule is that we must add "s" to the simple present tense form of the verb if the subject is third-person singular.
This rule is related to the person and number of the subject in the sentence. Person and number are used here in the grammatical sense. An animal or inanimate object can have grammatical person, such as "the dog" or "it" or "the book". Any reference to anyone or anything that is not the speaker or the addressee of the speaker (in a sense, this means "not me and not you") is third person, even names and groups, such as John, the committee, France, or canaries. When the simple present tense of the verb ends with "s", we add "es" to satisfy the rule of adding "s" ("The car passes quickly" "John does that well").

[Ralfix]

Hi, I have a question.
I read somewhere, I have to say "play the piano". Why is it right to say "play guitar" without "the"?
Ralf

[Beeesneees]

You can 'play the piano' or, if you are not talking about one particular piano, but speaking about your ability to play, you can say 'play piano'
You can 'play the guitar' or, if you are not talking about one particular guitar, but speaking about your ability to play, you can say 'play guitar'.

The same rules apply.
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"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Alan]

Hi Ralfix,

The usual way of saying that you play an instrument is to use the article 'the' as in 'play the guitar/the piano/the violin and so on. The article is usually omitted when someone is describing what members of a band or an orchestra play as in: Charlie plays guitar and Mary plays piano in this group.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple