English grammar practice. State Verbs

Hello English lovers!

I'm glad to see you in this Grammar Section.
Hope, you 've learnt Present Simple and Present Continuous Tenses.

Today we'll talk about  State Verbs.

These verbs aren't normally used in the continuous tenses. Why?
Because they express a state rather than an action !

We can devide state verbs into some groups. Look here:

1. Verbs of the senses:
hear, see, smell, taste, sound, seem, feel.

2.Verbs expressing feelings and emotions:
love, like, hate, dislike, detest,enjoy,want,ets.

3. Verbs of perception:
agree, believe, suppose, understand, know, forget, remember,think,ets.

4.Some other  verbs
be, have (= possess),  own, possess,want,need,cost,fit,wish.weight ets



For these verbs we must use Simple forms instead of Continuous.

 She is at home now,
I hear the sound of crashing waves.
He doesn't want to go to the cinema today.
They have got a new car.

 But as you know English is full of exceptions ! And now we'll learn one of them.

Some of these State Verbs are used in Continuous tenses if they describe action, not a state .

Let's compare

They have got a cosy house. (possesses) / They are having dinner now. (action)
I think, he is a true friend. (believe)  / I'm thinking about his problem. (considering)
Megan is a beautiful girl. (appearence) / She is being arrogant. (behaviour- sometimes;usually with adjectives such as careful, rude,polite,lazy ond so on).

Check yourself

1. I (think) about buying this book. - Are you kidding? I (think), you've got a lot of interesting books!
2. Why you (taste) the soup? - To see if it (taste) good.

Answers
1. am thinking / think
2. are you tasting / tastes.


http://amberer.blogspot.com/2013/07/grammar-present-simple-tense.html
http://amberer.blogspot.com/2013/06/grammar-present-continuous-tense.html