Present Tense Morpheme

Inflectional morpheme plays an important role in English present tense. In English, inflectional morpheme is needed as present tense marker with particular subject. The singular noun, the third singular personal pronoun and uncountable noun as subject need the verbs with present tense morpheme. The form of present tense morpheme in this case is the suffix –s. Look at the examples below:




(14) My mother sweeps the floor.
        My father works in a bank.
        My teacher comes on time.
        She/he speaks English fluently.

(15) My teachers never come late.
        My friends watch TV every night.
        The girls study in a university.

(16) *My mother sweep the floor.
        *My father work in a bank.
        *My teacher come on time.
        *She/he speak English fluently.

        *My teachers never comes late.
        *My friends watches TV every night.
        *The girls studies in a university.

All the verbs in sentences (14) namely sweeps, works, comes and speaks contain inflectional morpheme –s added in the final position (suffix) because the subjects are singular noun or the third person singular. Inflectional morpheme –s (the suffix –s) is not needed for the plural noun subjects. This is shown in examples (15). The sentences in example (16) are not grammatically correct because of the omission of inflectional morpheme –s and the misplacement of the inflectional morpheme –s.