re: Stative Verbs? page 4
Hi! here I come with a new question: I´ve been always told that stative verbs cannot appear in a progressive tense, but now I quote what I found yesterday in one of my books:
Stative verbs: they do not admit the progressive aspect.
- Verbs of inert perception and cognition, e.g. think, believe, like, love, see, feel, forgive, hear, remember, smell and wish...
- Relational verbs, e.g., belong, cost, depend, need, owe, own, posses, resemble...
They may occasionally indicate an activity and be used in the progressive form.
So, my question is: When can they be used in the progressive form, as the explanation quote above does not solve this for me? Also, could you please give any examples?
Big thanks to all those who reply in advance.
Antonio
Stative verbs: they do not admit the progressive aspect.
- Verbs of inert perception and cognition, e.g. think, believe, like, love, see, feel, forgive, hear, remember, smell and wish...
- Relational verbs, e.g., belong, cost, depend, need, owe, own, posses, resemble...
They may occasionally indicate an activity and be used in the progressive form.
So, my question is: When can they be used in the progressive form, as the explanation quote above does not solve this for me? Also, could you please give any examples?
Big thanks to all those who reply in advance.
Antonio
Comments (Page 4)
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I'm an English teacher from Israel. The rules are very simple - e.g. If the stative verb is an opinion, don't use it in a progressive form. Example: "I think this site is great".
If it's a real action use it any way you like (including the progressive form)
Example: "He's so sad. He's still thinking about his beloved pet." Here we can actually see the person's sad face (It has nothing to do with an opinion)
Another example:
These flowers smell great - opinion which is always stative
She's smelling the flowers now (action which can be seen) not stative
Your idea sounds practical - opinion - therefore stative
The driver is sounding his car horn - actual action - not stative.
There are many other verbs which have two meanings e.g. look, see, feel etc. The same idea applies there.
You look handsome. - stative opinion
Why are you looking at me?
I hope I've helped you
Bye
Holly
So called 'stative verbs' may be used in progressive aspect ANY TIME. Actually, the one who insists they may not, does not understand grammar.
In fact, 'progressive aspect' is what is known around globe as 'imperfect aspect': the aspect that describes processes, durations and continuities, the aspect for which the information whether the action was completed or not is not needed.
'Stative verbs' are those that not only are not alien to imperfect aspect, but vice versa, they are the very essence of imperfect aspect for 'states' being nothing else than processes and durations. Have a look into any 'aspectful' world's grammar and you'll see, that 'stative verbs' are very welcome in imperfect aspect in any language.
The reason why 'stative verbs rule' was born in the crookedest possible way lies in origin of the inventor of splitting the English verbs into 'stative" and 'active', which entailed the emergence of the said rule. Zeno Vendler is of Hungarian-German-American origin. Hungarian, German and English languages are virtually the only European languages that do not have the category of aspect. He didn't have a clue about aspects (neither was supposed to have one), but created a rule that relates to aspect in all possible ways and that was followed by people blindly.
Whether to follow this rule or not can be understood very easily. Look at two verbs: 'to know' and 'to wait'. Both of them are 'stative', but while 'to know' is 'strictly forbidden' to be used in progressive tenses, 'to wait' is more than welcome in them.
Stative verbs rule ruins English grammar.
The reason why 'stative' verbs tend not to be used in progressive tenses is because of their semantics - they already describe states and thus there is no need to add the extra aspect.
Also the distinction between wait and know that you mention is the distintion in semantics, waiting is perceived as an active deliberate process while with knowledge you either know something or you don't