[Grammar] Stative Verbs

antonyan · Aug 20, 2012

Hello,everyone
So far I've been taught about Stative verbs,among which verbs of senses, don't have continuous tenses.
Recently- was it on CNN or BBC news I'm not sure about-I was astounded to hear " We're seeing that negotiations .."
or " we've been hearing a lot about economic recession ..."
I'd like to know whether this kind of sentences are acceptable in both British and American English.
However, my teacher wouldn't consider them correct as our grammar books clearly state that "we're seeing things" or " we've been hearing noises" mean we have hallucinations!!

bhaisahab · Aug 20, 2012

antonyan said:
Hello,everyone
So far I've been taught about Stative verbs,among which verbs of senses, don't have continuous tenses.
Recently- was it on CNN or BBC news I'm not sure about-I was astounded to hear " We're seeing that negotiations .."
or " we've been hearing a lot about economic recession ..."
I'd like to know whether this kind of sentences are acceptable in both British and American English.
However, my teacher wouldn't consider them correct as our grammar books clearly state that "we're seeing things" or " we've been hearing noises" mean we have hallucinations!!

"We've been hearing about X" is fine. I don't much like "We're seeing that..." but it's probably acceptable in the right context.

5jj · Aug 20, 2012

A lot of confusion is caused by books/teachers insisting that there are some verbs that are, and can only be, stative verbs, and that these verbs can never be used in the progressive aspect. This is a gross over-simplification of the the actual situation.

If a state can be of limited duration, then the progressive aspect can be appropriate.

I live in Prague, and one of the reasons for this is that I love Prague. This is an emotion that I have felt since I first came to the city, and, as far as I know, it will never change. I am staying in Paris for a couple of days, and I am loving every moment of it.

I am 66, but I still see clearly without spectacles. However, I drank rather too much last night, and I am not seeing very clearly at the moment.

antonyan · Aug 20, 2012

Thanks a lot!
It's only when someone reaches an advanced level of English that they can challenge their teachers or grammar books!

:shock:

emsr2d2 · Aug 20, 2012

antonyan said:
Hello (no comma) everyone
So far I've been taught [STRIKE]about[/STRIKE] that stative verbs, among which are verbs of senses, don't have continuous tenses.
Recently - I'm not sure if it was it on CNN or BBC News [STRIKE]I'm not sure about[/STRIKE] - I was astounded to hear "We're seeing that negotiations ..." or "We've been hearing a lot about economic recession ..."

I'd like to know whether [STRIKE]this[/STRIKE] these kinds of sentences are acceptable in both British and American English.
However, my teacher wouldn't consider them correct as our grammar books clearly state that "we're seeing things" or "we've been hearing noises" mean we have hallucinations!!

Thanks a lot!
It's only when someone reaches an advanced level of English that they can challenge their teachers or grammar books!

:shock:

Your English is very good and you should be quite confident in challenging this kind of thing. In fact, feel free to refer your teacher to this forum, and to this thread, so that he/she can see that native English speakers have given you some more information, over and above the black-and-white "rules" in your grammar books.

As you can see from the top quote above, I have made some corrections to your written English (in red). The constructions are mostly fine but you do need to concentrate on your punctuation.

No space before a full stop or a comma.
Space after a full stop or a comma.
Space before opening quotation marks but then immediately type the next letter.
No space after the final letter of a quote, type the closing quotation marks immediately, but then leave a space.

[Grammar] Stative Verbs

antonyan

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bhaisahab

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5jj

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antonyan

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emsr2d2

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