Look for answer about stative verbs
I'm going to language school since September and recently I've learnt about stative verbs like "like, love, hate, prefer, know etc". My teacher said these words don't have gerund form. Is it true in real english? I mean for example famous McDonald's "I'm loving it" .
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Corrections · 7
2
I hate that McDonald's ad because it confuses all my students! Grammatically it is incorrect. Stative (or non-action) verbs do not have a continuous form.
Be careful though, they do have a gerund, which is written in the same way as the present participle! So:
'I'm loving it' is incorrect, but 'Loving you is easy' is correct.
If that's beyond your current level, just remember, it's the continuous form which doesn't exist, not the -ing form.
Be careful though, they do have a gerund, which is written in the same way as the present participle! So:
'I'm loving it' is incorrect, but 'Loving you is easy' is correct.
If that's beyond your current level, just remember, it's the continuous form which doesn't exist, not the -ing form.
1
Look for answer about stative verbs
I have been going to language school since September and recently I've learnt about stative verbs like "like, love, hate, prefer, know etc". My teacher said these words don't have gerund form. Is it true in real English? I mean for example famous McDonald's "I'm loving it".Yes it is true, McDonald's is grammatically incorrect!!! Companies just make stuff up for marketing.
0
You can use the present continuous, but judiciously. I agree with the other commenter: it is usually slang, and the McDonalds advertisement is an example of trendy slang.
However, you can qualify your discussion by indicating that something is happening "at this moment", or "right now", or "now". For example, if someone were talking to you on the phone and asked what you were thinking about, you would answer" "I am thinking (about)…)
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Stative verbs, that's, like old grammar. "Thou must not be liking something." In modern usage, you will be finding these everywhere :) Only worry about if you have to do an exam.
This British Council page gives you these old rules. https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/intermediate-grammar/stative-verbs You will find amongst their examples :
" Stative verbs are often verbs connected with thinking and opinions.
She doesn’t know what to do NOT She isn’t knowing what to do. "
You will find many examples, though, like "not knowing what to do ... " which right now on Google shows over 9 million exact matches - real life usage. Treat this "rule" with extreme caution. Go MacDonalds. Or, Star Wars style, "to boldly go where no Big Mac has gone before ... "
If you'd like academic chapter and verse on why this is far from an absolute rule or a guide to current usage, you could try
http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-state-of-stative-verbs.html
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/stative-verbs-in-present-day-english-english-language-essay.php
https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/2p1d2j/are_some_stative_verbs_in_english_becoming_dynamic/
Or for more of the traditional learner rules you could look at :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/10/course/lower-intermediate/unit-25/session-2/activity-2
0
It's used in slang.
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