State and action verbs
A verb refers to an action, event or state.
Action
We can use the simple or continuous form of action verbs:
I cleaned the room as quickly as possible.
She ’s watching television at the moment.
Event
We can use the simple or continuous form of event verbs:
Four people died in the crash.
It ’s raining again.
State
We usually use the simple form rather than the continuous form of state verbs:
I don’t know the name of the street.
Who owns this house?
Some verbs can be used to talk about both states and actions, but with different meanings:
| state (usually simple form) | action (simple or continuous) |
| I come from France. (This is where my home is.) | She is coming from France on Wednesday. He came from Italy yesterday. (travel from) |
| She is very friendly. (permanent quality or state) | She is being very unfriendly. (temporary behaviour) |
| We have two dogs. (own) | We’re having a meeting to discuss it. (hold a meeting) We had mussels for starter and prawns for main course. (eat) |
| Do you see what I mean? (understand) | Jane is seeing her boss today and she’s going to tell him she’s leaving. I don’t see Rebecca at work any more since I moved office. (meet) |
| Your dress looks nice. (appear) | What are you looking at? I never look at the price on the menu. (see with your eyes) |
Spoken English:
In very informal speaking you will sometimes hear state verbs used as action verbs when they refer to actions over short periods. These uses are not usually found in traditional grammar books.
Compare
| I like reading. | Like used as a state verb describing a permanent fact about me. |
| I’m not likingthis book. | Like used as an action verb referring to the book I am reading but not enjoying at the moment. |
Compare
| She lovesclassical music. | Love used as a state verb to refer to a permanent fact about her. |
| She’s loving the CD you gave her. | Love used as an action verb referring to the CD which she is listening to and liking very much at the moment. |
Verbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, adjectives and adverbs. A verb refers to an action, event or state.
These are verbs:
| actions | events | states |
| go | die | be |
| sing | happen | have |
| take | rain | know |
She always sings at parties.
It rained yesterday.
I only know his first name. I don’t know his surname.
Verb phrases
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A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb plus any modal and/or auxiliary verbs. The main verb always comes last in the verb phrase:
(mo = modal verb; aux = auxiliary verb; mv = main verb)
We all [MV] laughed.
Computers [MO] can [MV] be very annoying!
An apartment [MO] would [AUX] have [MV] cost less than a hotel for four of us.
Tony [MO] might [AUX] have [AUX] been [MV] waiting outside for you.
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