Look at these examples to see how stative verbs are used.
I think that's a good idea.
I love this song!
That coffee smells good.
Do you have a pen?
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Stative verbs describe a state rather than an action. They aren't usually used in the present continuous form.
I don't know the answer.
I'm not knowing the answer.
She really likes you.She's really liking you.
He seems happy at the moment.He's seeming happy at the moment.
Stative verbs often relate to:
- thoughts and opinions: agree, believe, doubt, guess, imagine, know, mean, recognise, remember, suspect, think, understand
- feelings and emotions: dislike, hate, like, love, prefer, want, wish
- senses and perceptions: appear, be, feel, hear, look, see, seem, smell, taste
- possession and measurement: belong, have, measure, own, possess, weigh.
Verbs that are sometimes stative
A number of verbs can refer to states or actions, depending on the context.
I think it's a good idea.
Wait a moment! I'm thinking.
The first sentence expresses an opinion. It is a mental state, so we use present simple. In the second example the speaker is actively processing thoughts about something. It is an action in progress, so we use present continuous.
Some other examples are:
have
I have an old car. (state – possession)
I'm having a quick break. (action – having a break is an activity)
see
Do you see any problems with that? (state – opinion)
We're seeing Tadanari tomorrow afternoon. (action – we're meeting him)
be
He's so interesting! (state – his permanent quality)
He's being very unhelpful. (action – he is temporarily behaving this way)
taste
This coffee tastes delicious. (state – our perception of the coffee)
Look! The chef is tasting the soup. (action – tasting the soup is an activity)
Other verbs like this include: agree, appear, doubt, feel, guess, hear, imagine, look, measure, remember, smell, weigh, wish.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Have a bath , have fun, have a good time, have a drink are all activities that can be used in the continuous form. State verb have: have a car, have blue eyes, have a job, Cannot be used in the continuous form. So why can’t ‘have an exam’ be used in the continuous form? It’s an activity….Please can you explain?
Hello CJ21,
We use 'take an exam' to talk about the activity (e.g. 'Tomorrow I can't meet with you because I'll be taking an exam' or 'No, I'm afraid Sue can't speak with you now because she's taking an exam').
We say 'have an exam' to talk about the exam as an obligation or something in our schedule (e.g. 'Tomorrow morning we have the maths exam' or 'Medical students have a lot of exams').
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kirk! Yes, it does thank you very much 👌
Hi Amit01,
It's a good question. People do sometimes say or write thinking to ... with the meaning of 'considering doing something'. Here are some examples I found:
However, it seems less commonly used than thinking of, and most dictionaries don't include it (yet). So, I would say that it's fine to use in informal situations, but probably not in formal situations, where standard or 'correct' language forms are preferred (such as in an exam, or a presentation).
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Mussorie,
The second sentence describes a day which is in progress - in other words, today.
The first sentence could be a more general statement, but it requires some kind of comment as to which days are generallt great. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
Yes, that's correct. You can replace it with other adjectives:
You make me confused/happy/sad/hopeful etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
The first sentence is correct. The second one seems as if it should be, and people would understand it, but I wouldn't call it correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
You can check this very easily in any online dictionary:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sprain
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
You are welcome to ask us about sentences that you find on our websites, or even sometimes if you find them in authentic texts in print or online, but we have a limited capacity to correct numerous sentences that our users have written because it often takes quite a bit of time to answer them properly. That's what the two sentences you've asked about here appear to be, and neither one is correct. The issue is that our primary role here is to help our users with our website.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
The construction here is make + sb + adjective: make him happy, make her angry, make us tired.
In your example, you need to use the adjective confused: He makes me confused.
You can also use confusing, but you'd need a very specific context:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Rsb,
Yes, confuse is a verb. However, your question was, as far as I could judge, about the construction make sb + adjective not make sb + verb.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Mussorie,
Confused and confusing are both adjectives. Confused refers to a person who thinks something is difficult to understand (i.e., it's an effect on the person). Confusing refers to what caused the confusion, for example:
But we can't say your sentence 2. Your sentence 1 is the correct version, because the adjective refers to 'me'.
Confusing may also be a verb in the -ing form, e.g.:
But in your sentence 2, confusing isn't a verb (because after 'make', the verb must be in the infinitive form, not the -ing form).
I hope that helps :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Mussorie,
For the meaning of 'something makes me confused', that's right - sentence 2 isn't correct. Only sentence 1 is correct.
Actually, it is possible to say It makes me confusing, but it has a different meaning. It means that I am causing the confusion for other people (not feeling confusion myself). For example, if I lack the ability to explain something slowly and clearly, it makes me confusing (i.e., other people are confused) when I try to explain it. However, this seems like a less common situation to describe.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi muratt,
Actually, not many verbs are always stative. Verbs often have several and various meanings, including the two verbs you mention.
About wish, the example you mention is an action. I imagine it as a person putting their hands together and closing their eyes, and thinking hard about the summer, trying hard to imagine it in detail. It's close in meaning to the phrase to make a wish. This is different from the stative meaning of wish, as in this example: I wish I was taller. Here, it's a more abstract feeling or desire, not an action that somebody does in a given moment.
Appear also has several meanings. In your example, it shows an action: the action of arriving and being present at an event. The stative meaning of appear is more like the meaning of 'seem', for example: She appears tired. / There appears to be a mistake in the bill.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Rsb,
Actually, fall (down) is an intransitive verb only, not transitive or ergative (see the Cambridge Dictionary page), so I'm afraid the sentence isn't correct.
But there is another transitive verb, fell, which fits in this sentence. It's transitive only.
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Rsb,
Fell is a regular verb, so the other forms are felled and felling.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Rsb,
To be honest, I'm not familiar with the term 'happening verb', but I guess it means a type of verb that shows an action without somebody doing the action, e.g. My watch stopped (in comparison with I stopped the watch, which doesn't have the 'happening' meaning because I did the action).
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Rsb,
I think I am getting angry would normally represent a happening. A happening is something that does not have any agent performing it. There may be circumstances that cause it, but it is not controlled or decided by anybody (i.e. it is independent of a person's volition).
If we understand I am getting angry as an action, that means I am choosing to react in that way. It is possible, but normally emotions arise spontaneously and outside a person's conscious control.
As I mentioned, I'm not very familiar with the term 'happening verb' and I don't know of any rules here, as it depends on the fundamental meaning(s) of each verb phrase. But this might be one useful way to differentiate them, especially for human actions - actions are often voluntarily done, while volition is not relevant to happenings.
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
I'm afraid I don't understand your question. 'happen' is a verb and 'happening' can be the present participle of the verb or a gerund of the verb.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Timothy555,
What you explain in your second paragraph sounds mostly right to me, though I'm not sure I'd describe a link verb as a kind of stative verb. As for your first point, stative verbs are not generally used in continuous forms, but there are many exceptions to this.
Please note that we aren't able to provide the level of support needed to go into any more detail than this or other finer points of English grammar. This is mostly because our primary focus is on supporting our users in their efforts to learn to use English in general, but it's also sometimes true that there's more than one theory about particular grammar points. For that sort of enquiry, I'd suggest the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange or, even better, an appropriate linguistics course.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nikbud,
After you enter your answers to the questions, click 'Finish'. You'll then have the option to click 'Show answers'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
Yes, 'work' is definitely a noun in both contexts. It's definitely a common noun in the first instance and I'd also say it's common in the second instance. Note that in both cases, it's uncountable.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Rsb,
In the phrase 'at work' I would say 'work' describes a place - the place where you work such as an office or a factory.
In the phrase 'I have work' the word describes a thing - the thing you have to do. Depending on the context it might also carry the meaning 'I'm busy' or 'I don't have time'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Manc,
Stative verbs describe the state of something, as contrasted with dynamic verbs, which describe ations performed by an actor. A state is sometimes defined as something which is unchanging for as long as it lasts, while an action is a process which changes over time.
A linking verb connects the subject with a subject complement which describes the subject; this can be a noun or an adjective. Linking verbs may also describe how we gain the information in the description (through senses, belief, feeling etc).
It's true that linking verbs are usually stative. However, not all stative verbs are linking verbs.
Please note that descriptions of stative verbs are generally lists of features describing how they can and can't be used. Descriptive definitions of this kind are not binary, which is to say that many verbs meet some of the criteria but not others, or meet some criteria in certain contexts but not others. Stative and dynamic are useful categories to a degree, but they are not fixed categories with clear boundaries and should not be treated as such.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Manc,
There is some overlap, but they are not the same thing. 'weigh', for example, is a stative verb but doesn't refer to a mental action.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team