English · A1 · verb · 4 minutes
Eat: present tense
Use eat/eats with food, meals, and frequency.
Understand the choice
Eat combines with food objects and at/for meal phrases. Frequency adverbs such as usually generally come before eat but after be.
Core rule: Eat adds -s only with he/she/it or a singular noun in affirmative present.
Notice it in context
We eat bread, but the child eats fruit.
Comemos pan, pero el niño come fruta.
Eat agrees with we; eats agrees with singular child; bread/fruit are general mass nouns.
What does she eat for breakfast?
Which food is her morning meal?
Does carries third-person; eat stays base.
They usually eat at six.
Six is their usual eating time.
Usually comes before lexical eat.
What to remember
- Have breakfast/lunch/dinner is common and does not require an article.
- Eat out means eat at a restaurant.
Common trap: Do not write she does eatS in a neutral question.