english study guide: Stative verbs

Stative verbs are not normally used in continuous tenses because they don’t describe actions.

thinking	believe, know, mean, think understand
existence	be, exist
emotions	hate, like, love, need, prefer, satisfy want
the human senses	hear, see, smell, sound, taste
appearance	appear, look, seem
possessions and relationships between things	belong, consist of, have, include own

Sometimes we can use a verb either for a state or for an action.

States

We have four cars. (=own)

I see your problem. (=understand)

I think you are right.(=believe)

I can't understand why he is being

so selfish. He isn't usually like that.

(being selfish = behaving selfishly at the moment.)

Actions

We are having lunch.(=eating)

Mark is seeing his boss.(=meeting)

I am thinking about the problem.

(=I am considering it.)

He never thinks about other people. He is very selfish.

(= He is selfish generally, not only at the moment.)

Sometimes we can use either the simple or the continuous with no difference in meaning.

english study guide