150 What are state verbs?

what are state verbs?

'They love it' or 'They are loving it'?

When a verb describes a state and not an action  we do not use the continuous tense. For example, 'play' is an action so we can say 'playing' whereas 'be' is a fixed state which does not change: 'To be, or not to be'.

Grammatically it is not correct to say "Im loving it" even though McDonald's have made this expression famous. 'Love' is a state verb and so we should say "I love it".

State verbs generally fall into 4 groups:

Emotion: love, hate, want, need

Possession: have, own, want, belong

Sense: see, hear, smell, seem

Thought: know, believe, remember

Here are some more examples of state verbs:

State Verbs
doubt	dislike	understand	suspect
loathe	own	belong	know
like	need	want	seem
mean	believe	forget	remember
prefer	hate	love	see

some verbs can be both state and action verbs

Some words can be state verbs and action verbs. The meaning of these verbs is then different. Take a look at these:

'I have a car.' – state verb showing possession

'I am having a bath.' – action verb which, in this case, means 'taking'.

'I think you are cool.' – state verb meaning 'in my opinion'.

'I am thinking about buying a motorbike.' – action verb meaning 'considering'.

Link: How to use 'if' in conditional sentences

Link: More help with State Verbs

• I am disliking garlic.
  
  correct
  incorrect
• I prefer winter to summer.
  
  correct
  incorrect
• She is reading a good book.
  
  correct
  incorrect
• I thinking about work.
  
  incorrect
  correct
• Please don't forgetting me.
  
  incorrect
  correct
• He is knowing him for a long time.
  
  incorrect
  correct
• I am hate school.
  
  correct
  incorrect
• You seem tired.
  
  incorrect
  correct
• She own a cat.
  
  correct
  incorrect
• They belong to the music club.
  
  incorrect
  correct
• Do you believing me?
  
  incorrect
  correct
• They need you.
  
  incorrect
  correct