Channel: VOA Learning English

Category: Education

Tags: english as a second languageamerican englishvoa learning englisheflenglish geammaresl

Description: Jill: Hi, John, how was your weekend? John: It was pretty quiet. We stayed home and did housework. How about you, Dr. Jill? Jill : We had a big family dinner with my sister and her family. She’s a great cook. Everything she makes tastes so good. I love having dinner with her. John : Oh, what did she bring to your dinner? Jill: One thing she brought was apple cake. Here’s a picture. Doesn’t it look good? John: It does. And you gave me an idea for some grammar we can teach today: stative verbs. Jill: I think you can find grammar in anything, but this is especially delicious. Tell me about it! John: You said everything your sister makes tastes good. Taste describes what we do with our sense, so it is a stative verb. Jill: And I also said I love having a dinner with her. Love is a stative verb, too, isn’t it? John: That’s because it shows an emotional state. Jill: Verbs that commonly have a stative meaning include: -verbs that show emotional states, such as love and dislike; -verbs that describe sense perceptions, such as smell or taste; -verbs that show existence, such as seem or look. Jill: I remember that we should not use them in the progressive tense. John: Right, we usually use stative verbs in the present tense. So when I saw the cake, I said, “That looks good.” Jill: And that’s Everyday Grammar! Originally published at - learningenglish.voanews.com/a/6531416.html