STATE-ACTION VERBS WITH DIFFERENT MEANING

be

Don't interrupt me! I'm

thinking.

stative - states

She's an engineer.

I was really tired.

feel

dynamic - behaviour

o
o

Now you're just being stupid.

He feels that we should work

harder.
He was being so badlybehaved.

It feels so soft.

dynamic - emotions, touching

have

stative - have an opinion, have a

texture or other quality

stative - possession

He's feeling a bit under the

weather today.

She has a new house and a

new job.

Stop feeling that bruise,

you'll make it worse.

They have three children.

He always has great ideas.

see
stative - vision and opinion

dynamic - actions

I see a boat on the horizon

o
o

She's having lunch with her

mother.
They're having a party at the
weekend.

him.

dynamic - meet somebody, have a

relationship, have a mental problem

She's having a baby soon.

o

I'll be seeing her tomorrow.

Shall I give her a message?

They've been seeing each

other for about a year now.

Pink elephants? You must be

seeing things!

think
stative - have an opinion or intention

o
o

He thinks it's going to rain.

I think I'll go to bed.

dynamic - the process of thinking,

considering
o

He's thinking about the

weather.

I don't know what she sees in

wish
stative - want something

I wish it was the weekend

dynamic - make a wish

Blow all the candles out.

What are you wishing for?

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Can and keep with verbs of the senses

To talk about things you see etc. at a given moment, we use can/could with a bare infinitive,
rather than a continuous tense. We can do this with see, hear, taste, smell, remember, understand

I could hear somebody singing next door. NOT I was hearing ...

I can understand how you feel. NOT I am understanding ...

We can use keep + -ing form to talk about repeated events.

I keep seeing this strange bird in the garden.

I keep remembering what she said.

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Stand, sit, lie

These verbs are normally dynamic, but can also be use to describe states, especially connected
with geographical location, in which case they are not normally used in continuous tenses.

He's standing over there.

The house stands in its own parkland.

She was sitting reading when the doorbell rang.

The village sits in a valley at the foot of the mountains.

I think he's lying down at the moment.

The pass lies between two high mountains.

______________________________________________________________________________

I'm lovin' it
Macdonald's advertising slogan has been critised by some grammar purists as being 'bad
grammar'. The verb love is certainly a state verb and isn't usually used in a continuous tense. But
if you check McMillans Dictionary you'll see that it gives three main uses for the verb love:
1. to be very strongly attracted to someone in an emotional and sexual way
2. to care very much about someone, especially members of your family or close friends
3. to like or enjoy something very much

Now while it says that progressive (continuous) tenses are never used with the first two
meanings, it makes no such rule about the third. Indeed it gives an example sentence:

I've been retired for a year now and I'm loving every minute of it.

And that sentence sounds absolutely natural. In fact we do sometimes use state verbs in
continuous tenses when we are talking about experiences which last a limited period of time,
especially in present and present perfect.

How are you liking your new job?

I've been wanting to do that for ages.

You must have been hearing things.

I've been noticing lately how more and more people are cycling to work.

This use of loving is unusual enough for the McDonalds campaign to have got a bit of extra
publicity due to its use of language, but not so unusual that it sounded impossible to most of us.
It is 'edgy' but not beyond the limits.
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Where there is little difference between simple and continuous
There is a small group of verbs used to describe temporary states which we can use in simple or
continuous tenses with very little difference in meaning:
ache, feel, hurt, look (=appear)

My back aches / My back's really aching.

How do you feel today? / How are you feeling today?

She looks really good in that dress / She's looking really good today

We tend to use continuous when we are talking about a particular moment, and simple when we
are talking more generally, but there is very little difference.
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A note on performative verbs
This is a small group of verbs where by saying the verb you perform the action described in that
verb. For example, the act of saying - I promise you - means I am making that promise. And if I
say - I predict it will rain - I am making that prediction. These verbs include:
accept, acknowledge, advise, apologize, assume, deny, guarantee, hope, inform, predict,
promise, recommend, suggest, suppose, warn
These are not state verbs and can be used in continuous tenses when we are describing what
somebody is doing - Don't go on about it so much, can't you see he's apologizing?
But when we use them as a declaration - I apologize for what I said, we usually use a simple
tense rather than a continuous one.
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Exercise 1 - Use your instinct and what you already know. Try these verbs in a continuous
tense and see if they sound OK. If so, they are probably dynamic (action) verbs. If not,
they're likely to be state verbs. But see if you can also see which could be both (there are
eight of them here).
Dynamic State

Both

Dynamic State

1. sing

13.

say

2. think

14.

want

3. belong

15.

like

4. feel

16.

talk

5. depend

17.

own

6. listen

18.

see

7. hear

19.

seem

8. taste

20.

appear

9. have

21.

cost

10. mean

22.

dislike

11. be

23.

enjoy

12. measure

24.

realize

Both

Exercise 2 - Use your instinct. Tick (check) the sentences which look OK. For those that
don't, leave the boxes empty.
OK
1.

He's being very naughty today.

2.

She's being very tired at the moment.

3.

I'm seeing him at the weekend.

4.

I'm seeing someone coming to the front door.

5.

This soup is tasting good.

6.

She's tasting the soup to make sure it's ready.

7.

He's feeling a bit hungover today.

8.

This material is feeling like silk.

9.

I'm thinking we should go somewhere different this year.

10.

He's probably thinking about his next holiday.

11.

He's wishing he hadn't said that.

12.

We're wishing for good weather for our holiday.

13.

She's having a great time in Turkey.

14.

She's having her own blog.

15.

He's seeming very nice.

Exercise 3 - use one verb for each group of two or three sentences. Use a suitable simple or
continuous tense. In each group there is at least one in a simple tense and at least one in a
continuous tense. For this exercise, don't use contractions.
appear see hear feel look smell sound taste
1 a
b

2 a
b

3 a
b
c

4 a

She

different perfumes as I walked into the cosmetics department.

These roses

wonderful. Did you grow them yourself?

that there is too big a gap between the rich and the poor.

She says she

really good at the moment.

Listen! They

the gong for lunch. We'd better hurry.

I have to say, your plan

That

very interesting.

like Peter now.

you're getting married.

5 a
b

6 a
b
c

7 a
b

8 a
b

I thought I

She

somebody at the door, but I must have

wines all yesterday afternoon.

This soup

I will

delicious.

him later today. Do you want me to give him a message?

We will
Ah! I

if we've got time later on.

her now; she's over there by the fountain.

Currently she
He

things.

at the Strand Theatre in a play by Strindberg.

to be asleep.

at the newspaper when I came across this article.

Let's see it. Oh yes, it

rather interesting.

Exercise 4 - Use one verb for each pair of sentences, once in a simple tense, once in a
continuous tense.
consider cost disagree imagine love measure recognize remember
want weigh
1

a
b

a
b

I hope you

about the party tonight.

It's a long time since we last met. I hope she

She

every minute of her new job.

She

playing golf at the weekend.

I see you

me.

with me yet again just for the hell of it.

b
4

a
b

a
b

a
b

a
b

a
b

a
b

10 a
b

They

on so many things, yet they get along really well.

It

a lot of money to travel by train nowadays.

This transport strike

the company a lot of money.

More and more people

the importance of the environment.

He

her immediately, even though he hadn't seen her for ages.

We

moving out to the country.

He

shaving a waste of time.

Where are our potatoes? The shop assistant

This shopping

them.

a ton. Can you help me with it?

If you

that I'm going to tidy up all this mess, you're mistaken, young lady!

If you

a tropical island with lots of palm trees; that's what it's like.

Was there anything else you

As a child he always
He's

to be an engineer when he grew up.

the room for a new carpet.

The room

three meters by four.

ANSWERKEY
Exercise 1
1. D
2. B
3. S

13. D
14. S
15. S

4. B
5. S
6. D
7. S
8. B
9. B
10. S
11. B
12. B

16. D
17. S
18. B
19. S
20. B
21. S
22. S
23. D
24. S
13. Exercise 2

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
14. Exercise 3

1.

5.
a. was smelling
b. smell

2.

a. was tasting
b. tastes
6.

a. feel
b. is feeling

a. be seeing
b. see
c. see

3.
a. are sounding
b. sounds
c. sounds
4.

7.
a. is appearing
b. appears
8.

a. hear
b. hear
c. been hearing

a. was looking
b. looks

4.
5.
6.
7. Exercise 4
1.

4.
a. are remembering
b. remembers

2.

a. costs
b. is costing
5.

a. is loving
b. loves
3.

a. are recognizing
b. recognized
6.

a. are disagreeing
b. disagree

a. are considering
b. considers

7.

9.
a. is weighing
b. weighs

8.

a. were wanting
b. wanted
10.

a. are imagining
b. imagine

a. measuring
b. measures