Action Verbs vs State Verbs - Learn English Tenses (Lesson 5)

Hello, and welcome everyone. This is Minoo at Anglo-Link and this is the fifth video in our series

learn the tenses

Today, we're going to talk about state verbs

This is a special group of verbs that you need to know about, and by the end of this video

you will know what they are and how to use them correctly. So,

When you're ready, we can begin.

Right before we look at state verbs and differentiate them from

action verbs, I'd like to give you a quick overview of the tenses that we've already looked at together

Let's review them with three action verbs: 'say', 'play', 'drive' and 'rain'.

So remember present simple

was to speak about facts and habits

'I play Tennis once a week.'

'He drives fast.'

'It often rains here.'

And then we looked at present continuous

which indicates an action which is in progress now.

'I'm playing tennis now.'

'He's driving to Paris at the moment."

'It's raining again.'

and then we moved on to present perfect continuous.

It was to talk about an action that started in the past and is still in progress.

'I've been playing tennis since I was 12.'

'He has been driving for three hours'

'It has been raining all day.'

Then we looked at present perfect: an action that's complete at the time of speaking.

'I've played tennis with her once.'

'He has driven 300 kilometers so far.'

'It has rained three times this week.'

Then we looked at past simple

which was for an action completed at a specific time in the past.

'I played tennis with her when we were in Spain.'

'He drove 100 kilometres before sunrise.'

'It rained heavily last night.'

Now you notice that all these examples are with what we call action verbs

So what is the difference between an action verb and a state verb?

An action verb, and most verbs are action verbs,

designates an action, something that you can start and stop as and when you want

By contrast, a state verb, and there are only a few of them,

designates a mental state that you cannot really start and stop whenever you want

There is a sense of continuity in them

such as 'be', 'have', 'exist', 'know', etc

Because of this sense of continuity

They don't take continuous tenses. That's what you have to be careful with.

When you're using your tenses, you've got to be careful not to put a state verb in the continuous form

for example let's look at the verb 'to be'.

'I'm being tired now'

Doesn't sound right, does it?

Because it's a state verb

We only use simple tenses with state verbs, so 'I'm being tired now'

changes to 'I'm tired now'.

Or

'I've been being tired all day' sounds really strange,

again because the verb 'to be' is a state verb

Keep it to a simple tense. In this case

Present Perfect Simple

'I've been tired all day'

Let's look at two other state verbs

'I'm having a red car'

can't do because it's a state verb.

'I have a red car'

and 'I've had this car since 2006'

One more example of the state verb not taking a continuous tense

'I'm knowing this man'. 'Know'

Simply, 'I know this man'.

and

'I've known him for many years'

Now there are four verbs that can be a bit tricky

because they can be either state or action.

Let's look at the first one. We've already had an example of this. It's the verb 'have'.

We saw the sentence

'I have a red car'.

In this example the verb 'to have' means 'to own'

something that belongs to you, it's a state verb.

However, the verb 'have' replaces many other verbs, like 'eat' and 'drink' and 'smoke'.

It designates an experience or taking something.

In this case, it's an action verb and it can take any continuous tense.

For example

'I'm having breakfast'

or

'They're having a good time'.

The next verb that can be tricky is the verb 'think'

Again, it has two meanings. It can mean 'to believe' in which case it's a state verb

and you must avoid continuous tenses here

For example: 'I think you're right'.

But 'think' also means 'to reflect'

like you can be thinking about something, then stop thinking about it and come back to it later.

So, it's an action verb.

Example: 'I've been thinking about selling my house'.

The last two verbs you have to be careful of are verbs 'to live' and 'to work'

again

They can be considered as an action verb or a state verb.

It depends on the situation or the circumstances on the context

Many times, whether you use it as a state or an action verb, whether you put it in the continuous or simple form,

doesn't matter really they mean the same thing

So you could say 'I've been living here for 10 years' or

'I've lived here for 10 years'

And the same, the verb 'work'

sometimes it's an action, you can start and stop working, for example, on a project

and sometimes it's just your job. So there is that sense of continuity in it already.

So feel which one is more appropriate

Both are correct. You can say 'he has been working there since 2008' or

'He's worked there since 2008'.

Well, that's all for state verbs. I hope you've enjoyed this video.

For more information you can go to our website

Anglo-link.com, read the explanation, do some exercises to reinforce this point.

Thank you for watching and I look forward to seeing you in our next video.

Bye now