Stative and Dynamic Verbs
Some verbs are not generally used in progressive forms. They are called stative because they refer to
states (e.g. experiences, conditions) rather than to actions. In a sentence like:
She loves/loved her baby more than anything in the world.
loves (or loved) describes a state over which the mother has no control: it is an involuntary feeling. We could not use the progressive forms (is/was loving) here.
Dynamic verbs, on the other hand, usually refer to actions which are deliberate or voluntary (I'm making a cake) or they refer to changing situations (He's growing old), that is, to activities, etc., which have a beginning and an end. Dynamic verbs can be used in progressive as well as simple forms. Compare the following:
progressive forms simple forms
1. Dynamic verbs with progressive and simple forms:
I'm looking at you. I often look at you.
I'm listening to music. I often listen to music.
2. Verbs which are nearly always stative (simple forms only):
I see you.
I hear music.
3. Verbs that have dynamic or stative uses:
deliberate actions states
I'm weighing myself. I weigh 65 kilos.
I'm tasting the soup. It tastes salty.
I'm feeling the radiator. It feels hot.
Stative verbs usually occur in the simple form in all tenses. We can think of 'states' in categories like:
1 Feelings: like, love, etc.
2 Thinking/believing: think, understand, etc.
3 Wants and preferences: prefer, want, etc.
4 Perception and the senses: hear, see, etc.
5 Being/seeming/having/owning: appear, seem, belong, own, etc.
Sometimes verbs describing physical sensations can be used in simple or progressive forms with hardly any change of meaning:
Ooh! It hurts! = Ooh! It's hurting.
Can/can't and could/couldn't often combine with verbs of perception to refer to a particular moment in the present or the past where a progressive form would be impossible:
I can smell gas. = I smell gas.
(http://www.znanje.org/knjige/english/grammar/verbs/main.htm)
2. Present Continuous & SImple Present
5. Exercise
8. Exercise**
9. Exercises
10. Exercise
11. Use