Following from my tips on the past simple and state verbs, and its comparison with the past continuous (based on extracts from The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide), this article will explain how the present tense works with states. As demonstrating states can present an irregular pattern when choosing a correct tense, the following notes will help you decide which present tense is most appropriate in different situations.
Firstly, as covered with the past tenses, remember that state verbs, for emotions, conditions, possession and senses, such as be, have, feel, seem, look, and belong, should be shown using the simple tenses, even when a continuous tense may seem appropriate (for instance with a temporary or ongoing action). But what happens when we use different present tenses for states?
The present perfect is used for states when we want to emphasise the duration of the state, for an action or event that started in the past.
- I have known about it for weeks.
- I know all about it.
- I’m liking what I hear.
- I’ve been liking this new song. (For some time, up to – and including – now.)
- I have felt better. (in the past)
- I feel terrible. (now)
- I’m feeling bad. (Now, but temporarily.)
- I’ve been feeling bad all week. (Now, but temporarily, started in the past.)
Want to master the English tenses?
Learn all the rules with The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide, and practise them with The English Tenses Exercise Book, which contains 160 exercises.
Hello Phil,
Not sure if this is entirely relevant to this article, but may I know what the difference is between the word “state” and the word “situation”. Dictionaries appear to list these two words as synonyms of each other, but my understanding of both words is that for “state” it reflects the current condition that a person/thing is in (that is focus is on the person/thing itself), but “situation” refers to the factors/conditions that exist at a particular time/place (that is focus is on the factors/surrounding of the person/thing as oppose to the person/thing itself). Is this correct?
Regards,
Shizuka
Hi Shizuka,
I think your understanding there is accurate – I would generally see state as covering a broader sense of condition while situation refers more to a particular time and place. There is some crossover where they could be used synonymously, but to look at some differences, you might use state to refer to emotions while you might use situation to talk about challenges being faced.
Hi Phil,
One definition of a verb is that “verbs express actions of states of being”. While I initially agreed with this definition, it occurred to me that verbs are generally grouped into dynamic verbs (aka action verbs) and stative verbs (aka state verbs), and that stative verbs can be further divided into a few groups, such as sensing verbs (e.g. see, hear, smell etc), emotion & thought verbs (e.g. love, hate or think as well as any other mental cognitive and/or emotional verbs), possession verbs (to have, to belong, to own etc) and finally being verbs (e.g. be/are/is, contain, involve, consist etc).
Firstly, may I know if my above classification of verbs is accurate?
Secondly, if my above classification is accurate, then wouldn’t this imply that the definition i listed above about verbs (i.e. verbs are words which express actions of states of being) somewhat lacking, since “states of being” verbs simply refer to being verbs, which is but one category of stative verbs? In other words, why I say the definition seems to be lacking is because it should have said “verbs are words which express actions or states (i.e. stative verbs)”, thereby covering other types of stative verbs, and not just “states of being verbs (aka being verbs)”? May I know if I am right?
Regards,
Shizuka