English Grammar - Stative Verbs

Greetings and salutations. My name is Ronnie, and today I'm going to teach you, by request,

some verbs that we like to call "stative verbs." "What are stative verbs?" you ask? Hmm. Stative

verbs are verbs that are not action verbs. So verbs like "jump" or "run" or "wave" or "smile"

all have actions to do with them. I like to call these "active verbs." How crazy. They are not

action verbs. They are stative verbs. Now, the rule about stative verbs is you cannot -- this

means don't do it -- use "to be" verb with the stative verbs, which I will explain with examples.

So, first of all, you have to know the groups or categories of stative verbs. I've broken them

down for you into four easy-to-remember categories. The first one is your feelings or your emotions,

how you feel. So, example, "love," "hate," "like." If it is a verb that has to do with what you feel

in your heart of hearts, you cannot say this. "This is wrong." Okay? Hmm. Then you're thinking,

"Uh-oh. Hey, Ronnie, you -- I went to a restaurant" -- we'll use that in quotations -- "and I saw

commercial, and it said, 'I'm loving it.'" Yes, it did, but I'm here to tell you that advertisements,

restaurants, creative license gives you or anyone the right to use grammar in a wrong fashion. So,

"This is actually wrong." The shock, the horror. What you have to say is, very simply, "I love it."

Yay. That's a heart. It looks like a heart, doesn't it? No. "I'm loving it" is incorrect.

Okay? You cannot say, "I'm hating it." Grammatically, it is wrong. "I'm liking it" grammatically is

wrong. But I say this a lot. I say, "I'm really liking my pizza." Grammatically, it is wrong. So,

when you have a grammar test, do not use "to be" verbs with these stative verbs. In casual

conversation, we, in slang, if you will, do say it. "We are wrong. We're such bad people."

The next category is senses. We have five senses. Smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Okay? So,

anything to do with hearing, see, sight, feel, smell, and sound is, again, hearing. You cannot

say, "I'm hearing the music." Grammatically, you have to say, "Oh, I hear the music." Again,

this is only for grammar. In conversation, we break all of these rules. "Oh, don't you love

conversation and hate grammar?" Next group is things that have to do with thinking or your

brain power. Now, feelings are from your brain as well, but we say they're from the heart. Thinking

is only brain functions. For example, "forget" -- what? "Forget" is the opposite of "remember." "Be"

-- "to be" -- you can't say, "I am being. I am being happy." Are you? Twice. Don't say it. "Know"

is knowledge. "Understand" -- "I am understanding" is not correct in English grammar. And "imagine"

-- "imagining" -- you cannot say, "I'm imagining" in grammar. Conversation -- yes. Grammar -- no.

And the last one is "belonging" -- something that you actually possess, you own, you have,

or it belongs to you. You cannot say, "I am having a marker." Are you having a marker? We would say,

"I'm having a baby," which is okay, but I can't have a marker. That would be odd. So, state of

verbs -- very important. In grammar, cannot be used with "to be" verbs. In conversation,

feel free to break all the rules. I always do. Good-bye.