Verbs used in the past dynamic2

A frequency list of verbs commonly said not to be used in dynamic tenses:

see (54); happen (26); hope (21); expect (14); long (12); hear, hurt (11); admire, find (10); imagine, wish (8); want (7); intend, mean (6); hate, depend (on) (4); count (on), like, realize (3); believe, care (for), know, love, regard (2); apprehend, comprehend, dare,desire, fear, feel (to be to the touch), forgive, owe, rely (on), smell, sound, trust, under­stand (1).

To see: l.^rShe took her hands away. His eyes! Was it light in them? Was it? They were seeing — surely they saw. And his lips made the tiniest movement (J. Galsworthy) (Model III: Derek, whom Nedda had thought to be dead, was coming to life); 2. Pablo stared straight at the table. His eyes were focused on the wine bowl but he was not seeing it (E. Hemingway); 3. "When I saw you there I thought I was seeing what I have seen so many times: a fine officer (G. Jenkins); 4. Five-hundred fashionably gowned women turned their heads, so intent and steadfast was Martin's gaze, to see what he was seeing (J. London); 5. He fingered the map and pretended to look as directed, but was seeing only all that he had seen long ago before there in Lycurgus... (Th. Dreiser); 6. For her at first the motionless quiet of the forest was unbroken, but soon, watch­ing him, she realized that he was seeing and hearing far more than she, and gradually, straining her senses, she too became aware of the breath of the forest (M. Mitchell).

To Happen: 1. They used to sit together on deck so that I saw a whole lot of what was happening (E. Wallace); 2. There were, no secrets in the san. Each one knew what was happening to the other (D. Cusack); 3. He had no idea what was happening (Th. Wolfe).

To Hope: 1. Even now he was hoping for a miracle to save him (C. P. Snow); 2. "I heard you were in town," Laura said. "I was hoping you'd call me" (I. Shaw); 3. Down the street Richard was on his way to the Bradley's big winter home. He was hoping Mrs. Bradley would be alone (E. Hemingway).

To Expect: l."I was expecting Pyle at ten, but he didn't turn up." — "Why were you expecting him?" (G. Greene); 2. "Aoh! I wasn't expect­ing you, Mr. Soames" (J. Galsworthy); 3. Eliza was expecting a baby as usual (A. Munthe).

To Long: 1. They were longing to ask Soames how Irene would take the result (J. Galsworthy); 2. She wrote, daily, that she was longing, praying, sobbing (S. Lewis); 3. He was a nice, quiet fellow. I saw he was longing to get away to the bush, and at the end of the month I asked him what he intended to do (W. S. Maugham).

To Hear: 1. Diminished and in fragments the В minor Suite came floating from the great hall to the ears of the two men in the laboratory. They were too busy to realize that they were hearing it (A. Huxley); 2."Did I tell you I had heard shouts? No? Well, I did. Shouts for help ... The others did not. I asked them afterwards. They all said No. No? And I was hearing them even then!" (J. Conrad); 3. (Doctor examining Jan's lungs): "Drop head — cough! —breathe." The stethoscope crept over her back. "Cough ...breathe..." Tap tap. What was he hearing? What changes were going on in her body? (D. Cusack); 4. He was hear­ing from sunrise to the setting of the moon salutes in his honour (G. Mer­edith); 5. One Sunday morning my father had just been quarreling with a peddlar, and we were hearing the aftermath indoors, when there came a sudden unearthly scream from the yard (D. H. Lawrence); 6. " I was hearing it told the King is in love with a woman out of Flanders" (Th. White).

To Hurt: 1. "Of course Jean was not playing the fool. His hand was hurting him — he nearly fainted (D. du Maurier); 2. His leg was hurting very badly now (E. Hemingway); 3. Then Gerda lay quiet, concentrat­ing wholly on her right leg, which was hurting badly (R. Mac-aulay).

To Admire: 1. "I was admiring your figure," he said. "My God, you are beautiful" (J. Braine); 2. And he would admire her for it as now, in a light way, he was admiring himself (Th. Dreiser); 3. She had halted

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in front of the large mirror and was admiring her own splendid figure (A. Huxley).

To Find: 1. He was soon finding himself irresistibly attracted to her (Th. Dreiser); 2. Christian went to the window. New batches of prisoners were swirling below. They were still finding guards and killing them (I. Shaw); 3. "Well-," I said, as soon as I could speak, for I was finding my friend a trifle overpowering, "this is most satisfactory" (P. Wode-house).

To Imagine: 1. Instantly Jill began to imagine all kinds of things. Perhaps a big bear was swimming across the lake. Perhaps it was an Indian. But she was not imagining the sounds that came from the lake. They were real (W. S. Gray); 2. Her tone was very soft and pleading, an attempt to make Clyde feel that things could not be as bad as he was imagining (Th. Dreiser); 3. She was always imagining, and waiting, and wondering (Th. Hardy).

To Wish. To Want: 1. "That's just what I was wishing" (D. Russel); 2. But all the time they had kidded him they were being moral, and all the time they were being moral they were wishing they had Mary (J. O'Hara); 3. Ronder was never happier than when he was wishing well to all mankind (H. Walpole); 4. He was wanting to sit by her, just be near her (S. Lewis); 5. "What do you want?" —"Oh, nothing much. I was wanting to have a last word with you, that's all" (E. O'Neill); 6. "Lord!" he said at the sight of me, "I was wanting something to hap­pen!" (H. G. Wells).

To Intend. To Mean: 1. He was not intending to create a massive sculpture of Saint John (I. Stone); 2. "Do you think that you'll try and get on the stage?" He was wondering what she was intending (Th. Drei­ser); 3. "It's inhuman!" —"We do our best." —"I wasn't meaning you, Sister" (D. Cusack); 4. "I don't see why you couldn't have told us — your mother and me."—"I've said—I was meaning to" (K. Wa-terhouse).

To Hate. To Depend (on). To Count (on): 1. Mordred looked at him. He was hating him — like the owl — condemning him as a coward (Th. White); 2. And at times when I went in to go to bed Mother would be sitting in the dark by Jewel where he was asleep. And I knew that she was hating herself for that deceit and hating Jewel because she had to love him so that she had to act the deceit (W. Faulkner); 3. "Noah." It was Burnecker's voice, controlled, anxious. "What're you going to do?" —"Me?" said Noah. Then, because he knew Burnecker was depend­ing on him. "I'm going through the hedge," he whispered (I. Shaw); 4. He was not looking after her at all. She was depending for her enjoy­ment upon the Vances (Th. Dreiser); 5. He was counting practically on her love for her children (Th. Dreiser); 6. He offered these as presents to the butler, as he had been instructed to do by his brother who evidently was counting upon great fruits from these well-approached clients (E. James).

To Like. To Realize: 1. I asked her how Gray was liking Paris (W. S. Maugham); 2. Mr. Hart didn't like that any more than he was liking his thoughts (J. O'Hara); 3. He was looking at the sky

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and realizing it was going to be late (J. Aldridge); 4. "You mean — you think — I should be better, better perhaps —" He was realizing things very quickly (H. G. Wells).

To Believe. To Care (for). To Know. To Love. To Regard¹: 1. "To­morrow," he said at parting.— "Yes," said Carrie, tripping elated away. There had been so much enthusiasm that she was believing herself deeply in love (Th. Dreiser); 2. Anthony looked at the jurymen but as yet could not tell whether they were believing Steve or not (G. Gordon);

3. "Well, you see, it was just as I told you. I wasn't caring for her any more" (Th. Dreiser); 4. "I didn't think it would be good for you — I was knowing lots of strange people time and again and then you might have been mixed with me" (H. Walpole); 5. He was loving her too in- tensely to think of giving her up in this, his hour of distress (Th. Drei- ser); 6. In his own heart he was loving the racket and rough-and-tumble (H. Walpole).

To Apprehend. To Comprehend. To Understand: 1. Waiting for Mar­tin, I manufactured an excuse to pass Sawbridge's laboratory, so that I could study him. He knew his danger. Just like us who were watching him, he was apprehending when the time — the precise instant of time would come (C. P. Snow); 2. He had accepted the world as the world, but now he was comprehending the organization of it, the play and interplay of force and matter. (J. London); 3. "You were in the Inter­national brigade?" Quale asked Mann. He was understanding now (J. Ald­ridge).

To Feel. To Smell. To Sound: 1. The stone bench was feeling hard and cold. But the ache of fatigue at the base of his spine had now become a sensation that seemed almost natural (E. James); 2. She was wont to smell last year of gardenias: this year she was smelling of lilies-of-the-valley (E. James); 3. "Are you sure you're making the most of it?" he said with a proprietorial, insistent air. He was delighted, and in the delight there was no envy. Yet suddenly he was sounding knowledge­able and worldly (C. P. Snow).

To Dare. To Desire. To Fear. To Forgive. To Owe. To Rely (on). To Trust: 1. "He was supposed to be meeting me here at six." —"Here?" he asked with an expression of sudden interest and curiosity. Was he imagining something, was he daring to suppose ...? —"Yes, here", she nodded curtly (A. Huxley); 2. However, this gave her the opportunity she was really desiring, to present the proposition which she felt to be unavoidable (Th. Dreiser); 3. I had grown so accustomed to the worldly view of my position that I was fearing for its stability (G. Meredith);

4. He was always forgiving the Indians for being Indians (S. Lewis);

5. At the time of L...'s sickness and death he was still owing him 1,000 dollars (Th. Dreiser); 6. But he was evidently in a pitiful state of mind. He was relying on them to save him (Th. White); 7. I was trusting him every time I saw him (J. Galsworthy).