Verbs: action vs state

 

We often use verbs to talk about actions:

• He swims at the beach every morning.
• I cooked pasta for dinner last night.
• She’s studying French at the moment.

 

We can use ‘action verbs’ in different tenses, including continuous tenses:

• He is swimming at the beach right now.
• I was cooking pasta for dinner last night, when the phone rang.

 

We also use verbs to talk about states:

• He needs to travel to the US.
• I didn’t understand the homework.
• They like basketball more than football.

 

We don’t usually use ‘state verbs’ in continuous tenses:

• NOT: He is needing to travel to the US.
• I wasn’t understanding the homework.
• They are liking basketball more than football.

 

We often use ‘state verbs’ to talk about mental or emotional states:

 

believe	feel	forget
hate	know	like
love	mean	need
prefer	remember	think
want	understand	wish

 

Other common state verbs include:

 

be	belong	have
own	possess	doubt

 

Some verbs can be both ‘state’ and ‘action’ verbs when they have different meanings:

• •  What do you think of the decision?
  • I feel it’s a mistake.

Here we are using ‘think ‘and ‘feel’ to talk about opinions. They are state verbs so the continuous tense is not possible:

• NOT: What are you thinking of the decision?
• I’m feeling it’s a mistake.

 

In the following examples ‘think’ and ‘feel’ are action verbs so we can use them in a continuous tense.

• What are you thinking about?
• I’m thinking about our holiday.
• How are you feeling?
• I’m not feeling very well.

 

In the following example we are using ‘have’ to talk about possession. It is a state verb so the continuous tense is not possible:

• NOT: He is having a red car.
• He has a red car.

 

Here ‘has’ means ‘eats’:

• She has breakfast at 7.30 every morning.

It is an action verb so we can use it in a continuous tense:

• She is having breakfast now.