Hi there, welcome back teacher Harry here back to our English lessons where I tried
to give you a better understanding and help you to improve your English whether it's for
Business English, or just ordinary conversational English with your friends or indeed, if you're
applying for a job in an international company, and you want to speak better or present yourself
better or in get yourself involved in that small talk, come to us.
We'll help you with all of your your needs.
I'll give you my contact details at the end of this particular lesson.
Okay, well, what are we going to talk about?
Today in the lesson,
today's lesson, we're going to talk about stative verbs, okay?
Now, stative verbs are lots of them.
And these are, they fall into four key categories.
And normally, when we use these stative verbs like love, or like or hate, we use them in
the simple tense, okay?
We seldom use them in the continuous format, or -ing as some people refer to it.
But we can.
And there are exceptions.
As always, in English language, there are lots of exceptions.
So I'll give you the stative verbs.
I'll give you examples of them in their simple format.
And then I'll also give you examples when you can use them in that continuous Present
Continuous format.
Okay.
And as I said, at the end of this, hopefully, you should get a really good understanding
of how to use them.
But if you still feel you need some more information, come back to me.
And we'll give you some more examples or point you in the right direction where you can get
a book or something that will give you some more details.
Now, for those of you who like fast food, you're probably familiar with McDonald's.
And if you listen to the ads for McDonald's, you'll always hear the Add McDonald's, I'm
loving it here.
So that's a really good example of a stative verb being used in this continuous format.
We don't usually use it and people ask me, 'Is it grammatically correct?' and technically,
it's not.
But you know, when somebody gets a jingle, or they have a poem, or there's a song, they
bend the rules slightly, because they want to get it to rhyme or they want the jingle
to be memorable.
And of course, when we use something like I'm loving it, or that it does, it sticks
in your, your memory, and then you're driving past McDonald's and you see those big yellow
M's and of course, you can think about that.
So let's get back to these stative verbs, sometimes called state verbs, okay?
So there are many, many more action verbs than there are a stative verbs also, action
verbs like to hit or to run or to drive.
But these stative verbs, there are lots of them, and I'll give you some of them.
And they fall into four broad categories.
Okay, the first would be those about thoughts or opinions, like, think or believe, I think,
I believe.
There are those verbs about possession.
I have.
And then the third category is about the senses to hear or to see, okay to hear or to see.
And then finally, there are those stative verbs about emotions, love, and hate, love
and hate all hurt your feelings, okay.
Now, as I said, those stative verbs are generally used in the simple tense and seldom used in
the continuous but there are exceptions.
The common stative verbs will be verbs like agree, deny, think, appear, prefer, hear,
look, love, like, consist, recognise, okay.
So they're good examples of stative verbs.
As we said, we can use a lot of them in the continuous format, particularly when we're
going to describe some actions.
Okay.
And when we're talking about an experience that will last for a limited period of time,
okay, so I've already given you the example of McDonald's, I'm loving it.
Okay, so let's look at a few others.
So if somebody is talking about their, their, their job, they could say, yeah, I, I really
love my job.
I really love working here.
I really love the interaction with the client.
So it's a very, very standard way of describing your job.
But you could also use it in a more dynamic way where you could say, Well, I've been self-employed
now for one year or two years, and I'm loving every minute of it.
Yep.
So we're talking there, and something continuous.
I'm loving every minute of and it's a good example of using love in a more dynamic way.
I'm loving every minute of it.
I've moved from where a school in the suburbs to an inner-city school.
And it's really much more dynamic.
I'm loving every day that I go to school.
Okay.
The same with think, yeah, here's a really, really good example of when we can use it
in the static way, but we can also use it in that -ing or continuous format.
I think it's a really good idea.
She thinks he is a fantastic writer.
Okay, talking about your, your... perhaps Dickens Oh, yes.
Yeah, I think, yeah, he's a really great writer, a great author.
But if we want to use think in another way, we can say something like, Yeah, I've got
a bit of money saved because of the COVID situation.
I'm thinking of buying a new car, or I'm thinking of investing in an apartment.
So it's about time I moved away from mum and dad.
So I'm thinking of this, or I'm thinking about that.
So it's something you're planning something you're looking at.
It's not something you've decided on yet.
But it's a really good example of using those stative verbs in a more dynamic way.
And the same way we use the verb hear.
Yeah.
So when I'm sitting here recording my lessons, particularly in spring or summer time, I can
hear the birds singing.
So early in the morning, I hear the birds in the trees.
So at 5.30 or 6am, whatever time it might be.
But if I want to use in a more dynamic way, we could say something like off, you're hearing
things.
So somebody says, Did you hear a knock on the door?
Did you hear the bell ringing?
No, I didn't hear anything.
I think you must be hearing things.
So again, a good example of using it in a more dynamic way.
Another static verb is the verb to like.
Ice cream.
I like it.
Okay, I like ice cream.
I don't love it.
I like it.
Okay, in the same way, we can use it more dynamic way when somebody is talking to their
friend say, Oh, I hear you've moved jobs recently.
Are you liking the experience?
Yeah.
So you can use it in that sense?
Are you liking your new job?
Yeah.
You could just simply say, Do you like it?
But if you wanted to be more dynamic, how are you liking your new job?
How are you liking the move to the new city?
How are you liking that new car that you've bought?
Okay, if you use it in all of those ways.
To appear.
You look at your driving licence, it appears that my driving licence is out of date, I
will have to apply for a new one.
It appears as if the trains are on strike, we'll have to either get a bus or we'll have
to take the car.
Okay, so you can use it in that context.
But if you want to use it somewhat more dynamic then you could say, Oh, that actor that you
like.
You know, that really good guy, he's appearing in a new production 'Gone with the wind,'
it's going to be in the city in the next couple of months.
Would you like to go?
So the actor or actress they are appearing in a new production on stage.
So again, a little bit more dynamic.
The word weigh.
And that's W-E-I-G-H.
Weigh.
So when we use it for example, I'm going to weigh the bag now, to check if I'm overweight
in terms of my luggage allowance when I'm travelling so the bag weighs 21 kilos or the
bag weighs 16 kilos.
Okay, so we use it in that sort of way.
Or we can be a bit more dynamic.
I'm weighing this parcel before I go to the post office because I want to make sure I
get the correct stamp.
So the correct postage.
Okay, so I'm weighing this parcel before I post it.
To wish.
We sit there often on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday half I wish it was the weekend.
I wish work would be over.
I wish it was five o'clock.
I wish it was six o'clock because you've got something else that you would like to do or
somewhere that you'd prefer to be rather than working.
And then a more dynamic way we somebody can ask What are you wishing for for the new year?
What are you wishing for for your birthday?
So is there some specific or special gift you want as something specific or particular
that you want to happen in the new year?
What are you wishing for?
What are you hoping for?
So these are all good examples, as I said, of those stative verbs.
Okay.
So often, as I said, we use them only in the present simple.
I like, I love, I hate, I think.
But occasionally if we want to be a little bit more done...
dynamic we can use.
I am thinking of...
What are you wishing for?
What are you hoping for?
Okay?
Now, the second part of this is about certain verbs that you can use them in the simple
format or you can use them with the -ing or the continuous format, and there is no difference
in the meaning.
Okay?
So these would be verbs like ache, to feel, to hurt or to look.
Okay, so let me give you an example of those.
So you've been working in the garden, and you're getting ready for the spring or the
summer, you can come home and say, Oh, my back aches, my back aches, or my back is really
aching.
Yeah, no, no difference.
It's the same.
You got the pains and your back and your sides, your arms, my back aches from all that work.
My back is aching from all that work.
I was running in the park and I fell over a brick or a stick or on some pothole and
in the ground, my foot hurts.
Now my foot hurts after that run.
Or my foot is hurting, my foot is really hurting.
Okay, so you can use my foot hurts, or my foot is hurting.
The classic one here was about feel.
How do you feel somebody will ask you in the morning?
Oh, hi.
How are you?
How do you feel today?
Oh, I feel great.
Thanks.
Or how are you feeling today?
I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday.
So how do you feel?
How are you feeling?
Exactly the same, the meaning is identical.
Or your daughter is getting ready to go to her graduation ball and she's bought it...
a new dress and you turn to your husband and say, Wow, she looks really good in that dress.
She looks really good in that dress.
Or she's looking really good today.
She's looking really good today.
The meaning exactly the same.
Alright, so to look to feel, to ache or to hurt, you can use it in its simple tense,
or in that continuous format there...
the meaning is identical.
Okay, good.
Well, hopefully, you've enjoyed that particular lesson and get a better understanding of these
stative verbs and how we use them.
As I said at the beginning if you want to contact me, well, of course, you can do so
on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.
Any comments that you have I'm very happy to hear them.
Very happy to incorporate or include something that you would like to be included in one
of the future lessons.
Okay.
Thanks for listening.
Join me again soon.