Simple and Continuous Aspects Stative and Dynamic Verbs

Verb forms can use either the simple or the continuous aspect.

When we use the simple aspect, we view the action as series of actions as a whole. The simple aspect indicates one or both of the following:

• that an action or series of actions is complete;

• that the situation is permanent or regarded as permanent.

When we use the continuous aspect we view the action or the series of actions in progress. The continuous aspect does not describe the whole event. It indicates one or more of the following:

• an action happening at a particular moment in time; we view the action between its beginning and its end;

• an action or activity that is seen as temporary;

• an action that is incomplete;

• a series of repeated actions that is seen as temporary.

We can use both dynamic and stative verbs in the simple aspect.

Dynamic verbs are verbs which describe actions, e.g. go, ask, walk, explain, work.

Stative verbs are verbs which do not describe actions; they include verbs related to:

• the senses: feel, hear, smell, sound, taste;

• thinking / believing: think, suppose, expect, doubt, guess, imagine, know, realize, regard, remember, understand;

• possession: belong to, have, own;

• emotional states: dislike, hate, like, love, mind, prefer;

• appearance: appear, seem, be;

• wants and preferences: want, need, prefer, wish;

• others: contain, depend on, find, involve, mean.

Some verbs which are normally stative verbs can become dynamic verbs with some change in meaning.

Most of the stative verbs refer to states that are clearly thought of as permanent rather than temporary:

I know Jane very well.

When one of the stative verbs is used in the progressive it is being used with a change of meaning or to show something is temporary, for emphasis or to suggest that one’s feelings are in the process of development.

I love chocolate. (permanently true)

I’m in Paris for my two-week summer holiday and I’m loving every minute of it. (stresses the temporary nature of the activity)

Unit 2 Talking About the Present

In situations where you are discussing an existing state o affairs, you use a verb which is in the present tense. Usually the verb tense is sufficient to indicate that you are referring to the present. You normally only use an adverbial modifier of time for emphasis, or to refer to something which is unrelated to the present moment.

You use the Present Simple or the Present Continuous to talk about the present.

You use the Present Simple:

1. to talk about regular or habitual actions

Do you eat meat?

I pay the milkman on Fridays.

2. to talk about general truths

Love makes the world go round.

Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.

3. to talk about the settled state of affairs which includes the present moment but where the particular time reference is not important. Usually in these cases we are talking about the actions permanently characterizing the subject.

My Dad works in Saudi Arabia.

He is a very good brother. We love him.

4. to talk about your thoughts and feelings at the present moment, or about your immediate reactions to something, usually with verbs that do not admit of the continuous form

I’m awfully busy.

They both taste the same.

I want a breath of fresh air.

However, if you are talking about physical perceptions such as seeing or hearing, you normally use the modal can although the Simple Present is occasionally used.

I can see the fishing boats coming in.

I can smell it. Can’t you?

5. to discuss what happens in a book, play or film or to describe such events as a sports match or a ceremony at the time that it is happening (for dramatic narrative)

Andy Gray takes the ball upfield again, passes to McInally on the edge of the box. He turns, shoots – and…

6. in exclamatory sentences beginning with here, there to denote actions going on at the present moment

There goes the bell!

Here comes the bus!

7. in instructions (we can use either the imperative or the Present Simple)

8. to introduce a quotation

The book says that too much butter or milk is bad for you.

You use the Present Continuous:

1. to talk about something that is happening at the moment you are speaking

Wait a moment. I’m listening to the news.

We are having a drink. Come and join us.

The Present Simple is preferred to the Present Continuous to denote actions going on at the present moment when the action as such and not the progress is important, or when the attention is focused on the manner in which the action is performed.

Why don’t you answer? You speak so slowly.

Why do you write with a pencil?

2. to emphasize the present moment or to indicate that a situation is temporary

She’s spending the summer in Europe.

I’m working as a British Council Officer.

3. to indicate changes, trends, development and progress

The village is changing but it is still undisturbed.

His handwriting is improving.

4. with always, chiefly in the affirmative, for a frequently repeated action, usually when the frequency annoys the speaker or seems unreasonable to him

Tom is always going away for weekends. (implies that he goes away very often, probably too often in the speaker’s opinion; but it doesn’t necessarily mean that he goes away every weekend)

I’m always making that mistake.

5. with always for an action which appears to be continuous

He’s always working. (= he works the whole time)

This sort of action quite often annoys the speaker but doesn’t necessarily do so:

He’s always reading. (could imply that he spends too much time reading, but could also be said in a tone of approval)

The first person could be used here too. The action then, like the other actions here, is usually deliberate.

6. with a point in time to indicate an action which begins before this point and probably continues after it

At six I am bathing the baby. (I start bathing him before six)

Similarly with a verb in the Simple Present:

They are flying over the desert when one of the engines fails.

The Present Continuous is rarely used in this way except in descriptions of daily routine and in dramatic narrative, but the Past Continuous is often combined with a point in time or a verb in the Simple Past.