Gateway to Grammar: He / She / It - Where does the ‘S’ fit?

There are many tenses (grammar for time) in English. I am going to teach you one phrase that will help you more than anything else when it comes to English grammar!

Say this out loud: “He she it – Where does the ‘S’ fit?”

Did you say it out loud? Is the dog looking at you like you have lost your mind? Excellent.

Whenever we conjugate (change with grammar) verbs in English you will find that he, she, and it are almost always different to the others. Let’s look at a simple example.

I walk home

He / she / it walks home

You walk home

We walk home

They walk home.

They are all the same, apart from he, she, and it. What is different? That sneaky ‘s’. It is almost always there. This is why whenever you see he, she, or it, you should be thinking “where does the ‘S’ fit?” In our example, it goes at the end of the verb => walks.

Let’s look at a more complicated tense, the present perfect continuous!

I have been walking home

He/she/it has been walking home

You have been walking home

We have been walking home

They have been walking home.

Did you spot it? That ‘s’ has attached itself to the auxiliary verb “to have” and created “it has”.

It is not always there, for some reason it does not like the past simple = “he walked”. It is however almost always there, and a very useful tip when you are looking at writing negatives and questions. Let’s look at the present simple again:

Do you walk home?

Does she walk home? <- The ‘s’ snuck in on the auxiliary verb do!

I don’t walk home

She doesn’t walk home <- There it is again!

So say to yourself, “He she it – where does the S fit?” and don’t worry about what the dog thinks.