To Think and To Hear – Two Special Verbs
Did you know there is something called dynamic verbs? Can a verb be both dynamic and stative? Listen to this episode and find out! In this episode I give examples of 2 verbs: to think and to hear.
Transcriptions
Hey guys, you are listening to number 55 of English Made Simple, numero cincuenta y cinco.
Hola muchachos, Milena here from www.englishmadesimple.net, what’s up? How’s it going? How’s your week going so far? Mhmmmm interesting, muy interesante. I am glad to hear you are doing well. That’s cool.
So I am here with my friend from Spain, my friend from Spain, Añares, tempranillo from Spain says hello. Ok guys haha
Welcome to English Made Simple amigos, where we learn to speak English with confidence.
And you’ve just met my friend Anares, from Bodegas Ollara, that’s actually a wine from Spain. Ok, I am allowed.
I suggest you grab an energy drink or a cup of coffee, not wine, grab a cup of coffee, because this episode will blow your mind! You will have to stay alert during this episode, I will cover some heavy stuff, you know, call me a nerd or whatever. So here we go. Lots of grammar to cover, it’s time to learn something new.
Righto, you know how I mentioned Stative Verbs in the past episode, episode #54, and I mentioned what it was, let me just remind you. Stative verbs are verbs that express a state rather than an action, when I say state I mean a condition. They are not used in the continuous form, even when we talk about temporary situations, or what we are doing right now. So these verbs are known as static, that’s another word, and they don’t change their form, there is no obvious action. There is no ING! I N G form. There is no continuous form for these verbs.
And guess they are mostly in Present Simple tense.
So I want to make it easy for you guys, stative verbs can be classified into 4 groups, into 4 categories.
It will be easier for you to remember if I just break it down into 4 categories.
So, we use stative verbs when we want to show Opinions or Thoughts, for example, verb to believe, understand, to know, we use stative verbs when we want to show Possession, verbs like to have, to own, to possess, and we use stative verbs when we want to show Senses, different senses, verbs like to hear, smell, see and feel for example. And lastly, the fourth categgry we use Stative verbs when we want to show Emotion, verbs like love, to like, to hate, to want and to need.
Remember from the last episode I used that example: I’m loving it! You know, you are welcome to use that slogan for English Made Simple, you can say I’m loving English Made Simple. I don’t mind, you can use that.
Anyway, let’s continue. Right so that was stative verbs.
But, the verbs that can be used in continuous form are called Dynamic verbs or Action verbs. These verbs have a duration and they occur over time, they describe an activity. So this is opposite of stative verbs, they are called dynamic or action verbs.
Phew! Are we doing well so far? Have another sip of that coffee because we are going to continue!
And guys, there are also some verbs that can be either dynamic or stative, depending on their meaning and context in the sentence. So, some verbs can be both dynamic and stative. Just to confuse us even more! In the next episode, #56 I want to explain more about dynamic verbs, using more examples and hopefuly that will help you understand them a little bit better.
So in this episode, I just want to quickly introduce you to 2 verbs that can be both dynamic and stative. Yes, guys! The verbs can be both stative and dynamic! Pay attention because the meaning is completely different, if we use one in dynamic and one in stative form, the meaning will change. Let’s see if I can explain this in 5 minutes or less haha ‘cause maybe this episode goes a little bit over 5 minutes ‘cause I love to talk.
So here are some examples of verbs that can be either dynamic or stative:
The verbs like: To think, to hear, to have and to see.
I am going to give you some examples, I will give you 2 examples, and I will use the verb To THINK and to HEAR and let’s see if you can spot the difference in meaning.
So in the first example, To Think.
In the stative form, we use the verb to Think, to give an opinion.
I think people should stop watching TV, there is a lot of rubbish on TV.
So that’s my opinion. Rubbish. Basura.
In this case Think is used to give an opinion on something.
Now, the same verb can be used in a dynamic form but it has a different meaning.
Ok here is an example, using the verb THINK.
Dynamic: I am thinking about buying a new phone.
I am thinking about buying a new phone.
In this case, THINK has a different meaning, it’s an action I am describing a process, I am planning something but I am not sure if I should buy the phone or not. I am just thinking about it. I am not giving my opinion. I am just thinking about something. It’s a process.
Now next word, to hear, can either be Stative or Dynamic.
Example number 2. To HEAR. Which is oir.
Stative form, would be: You hear my voice coming from your listening device, either your phone or your computer. So you hear my voice coming from your phone for example.
The same verb used in dynamic form:
You are hearing voices.
So we are using ING form of this verb. Same as in the previous example, we are using ING form which describes an action usually.
“You are hearing voices” has a completely different meaning! It means you are imagining, it means the voices are not real, maybe they are not real, it’s in your head.
Anyway, I hope that made sense. I introduced to stative and dynmic verbs and in the next episode examples, this is going into the advanced level of English. So if you can see the difference between dynamic and stative you are well on your way to speaking English confidently and fluently.
And this is the end my friends, until we meet again, have a great rest of the week and I shall speak with you soon.
My friend tempranillo says hello! Hasta la proxima! Ciao!