How to pronounce ING verbs (Dynamic verbs)
In this episode, I teach you how to correctly pronounce -ing verbs, I also talk about dynamic verbs or action verbs. I highlight exceptions with using dynamic verbs. And I touch on adjectives that have -ING ending. This episode is jam-packed full of goodies for you. Enjoy :)
Transcriptions
Hey guys you are listening to English Made Simple this is episode number 56, numero cincuenta y seis.
Hello from sunny Melbourne with today’s scorching high temperatures of 30 degrees. It’s like being in a hot oven. Hot as hell, you know, you know, that’s a pretty hot. Thank you for joining me, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net, and most importantly you are my ravings fans who are action takers and who really and genuinely interested in learning English, thanks for listening to me ramble every week. Rghto, so….
So before we start a special hello to a listener from India called Suresh, another raving fan of English Made Simple, thank you for your kind words and keep listening. Don’t forget to share this episode with your friends because sharing is caring! Hey doesn’t India normally have scorching temperatures during summer. I’ve got friends from India and they say it gets pretty hot there too.
So in my previous episode number 55, I promised to talk about dynamic verbs. This is just a fancy shmancy phrase for Action verbs. Dynamic or Action verbs. You can recognise these verbs because they have an ING ending, they have that ING sound at the end. That’s how we spell it – I N G. Ing.
Hey guys, it’s important in English that we pronounce the last syllable of each word. Sometimes when people speak fast or speak with slang (modismo) they will drop that G sound, so it doesn’t sound like ING but sounds like IN. The difference in the sound, in these two endings, ING and In, is very minor and you don’t really hear it sometimes. For example: today, I will be speakin’ to you about such and such.
When we write this in an email or similar, you would replace the last letter G with an apostrophe sign. Speakin’ or Speaking. That little comma sign above the last letter.
Personally, I prefer to pronounce every syllable so that it sounds clearer. I recommend you start doing the same, pronounce the ING at the end of the word until you feel comfortable using it.
So that was a quick tip in pronunciation of ING. I feel like singing this word, iiiiing.
So today guys, we are going to talk about dynamic verbs.
I hope I didn’t bore you in my last episode, it’s quite an intense topic Stative and Dynamic verbs. Only with practise you will get to learn these verbs fully and you will get to understand their meaning. Now all I want to do is introduce you to Stative and Dynamic verbs and if you are keen, or if you are interested in learning more you could go ahead and do some further research. I don’t want to overwhelm you in this episode. There are heaps of books out there to help you out!
Did you know that there are actually more dynamic verbs than stative verbs? That’s good news for us, really good news. It just means there are not many verbs to remember when it comes to stative verbs. The verbs we learnt in episode #55, go and check it out!
So dynamic verbs involve verbs like:
To be, eat, to talk, to walk, to dance, to feel, bring, take, buy and so on. We are familiar with all these verbs, I am sure, actually we are familiar with most of them. Most of these are simple and straightforward, we don’t need to go into too much detail here. That’s the good news!
Dynamic verbs or Action Verbs are used in the Present and Past Continuous tenses. Another good news, right? we know these tenses. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! We know this, present and past continuous tenses.
I would like to mention something here: Remember how in the last episode I mentioned an exception, the verb to LOVE, can be used in dynamic form, I am loving it! But the verb to LOVE is actually a stative verb. When used in dynamic form it means we want to emphasize something.
In this episode, I’ll give you a few more verbs that you need to be aware of, these verbs can be both dynamic and stative. In most cases the meanings are different, as I mentioned in my last episode, there are times when both static and dynamic verbs can mean the same thing. Oh my goodness! Like for example the word TO FEEL.
To Feel – it can be both dynamic and static or stative.
Example:
I am not feeling well OR I don’t feel well. Both mean the same thing.
No me siento bien.
Another verb you need to be aware of is to ENJOY. Enjoy is a verb of emotion and it is used in a continuous tense most of the time. You can say I am enjoying this party. Are you enjoying yourself? Are you enjoying yourselves? You can’t really say I enjoy this party. When referring to this party, fiesta. I am enjoying this party, I am really enjoying this party.
Cool. Those two are kind of two exceptions to dynamic and stative verbs.
Now, I’ve got two more special verbs for you guys, two more special verbs to be aware of. TO BE and TO SEE.
Let’s start with the verb To SEE. When used in an ING form, it can have different meanings.
For example:
My friend is seeing Peter. My friend Carolina is seeing Peter. This sentence implies that my friend Carolina is dating Peter. It doesn’t mean that she is physically looking at Peter. It means she is dating him, they are going out together. My friend is seeing Peter.
We are using the verb to see, but in fact it means, to date in this case.
However, in the following example:
I am seeing my doctor next week.
This doesn’t mean that you are dating your doctor, it doesn’t mean that you have a date with your doctor, it doesn’t mean that you are romantically involved with your doctor, actually it means that you have an appointment booked with your doctor.
When are you seeing your doctor? Oh I am seeing my doctor next week. I’ve got an appointment with my doctor next week. You can use this word to see, seeing! Ok?
Whoa! Interesting! Very interesting, very interesting guys. This can be really confusing, can it? But don’t worry be happy! This will all make sense! The more you practise the easier it gets.
Now, the last one, the last verb and one of my favourite verbs TO BE – yes I have a favourite verb.
I’ll give you some expressions that are useful to know. I use them often, I used them quite often in my previous episodes.
For example, consider these two sentences. I am going to use the verb to BE and change it into dynamic form, ok?
1. I am being silly. Silly is a word that just means ridiculous or stupid. This is using the verb BE in ING form.
The second example:
2. I am silly.
Let’s compare two examples. The first one was I am being silly, the second one I am silly.
I am being silly – implies that I am being silly at this very moment, I am behaving in a silly way, it’s a temporary action. It’s to do with my behaviour. Mi comportamiento.
I am being ridiculous, I am being silly. I am being an idiot. You heard me say these things before. In previous episodes.
So, TO BE can become a dynamic verb.
If I say: I am silly – implies that I am always silly, it’s part of my character, it could mean anything, I look silly, I talk silly. Just means I am silly as a person in general. I am ridiculous as a person in general! I think my husband would agree with that statement. I am just silly in general! Not temporary.
Now how was that? Did you learn something new today! Hopefully you had an a-ha moment, oh I didn’t know that, well now you do! Excellent!
I think we will finish with these stative and dynamic verbs, hopefully you learnt something new today!
Did you know there are adjectives that can have an –ing ending. Can you think of some adjectives that end with – ING?
One of my friends asked me, the other day, what is an adjective? And I was like, whaaat? You don’t know what an adjective is? What? That’s just crazy talk. Oh my goodness! Basics! I don’t blame her, she has never attempted to learn another language, so obviously for her, learning grammar in itself is like learning another language. You have to know all these special grammar terms to start making sense of the language. I get that.
But now back to you, I am getting myself distracted here.
So can you guys think of some adjectives that end with ING? That have that IIIINg ending.
I used one earlier, in today’s episode, new word for you guys, Scorching.
Scorching – very hot. Example, it could mean a scorching summer. It’s an extremely hot summer, very hot summer.
I heard that the past few days were a scorcher in Santiago. You can use it as a noun, a scorcher. Tomorrow will be a real scorcher in Melbourne. We are going to have 35 degrees tomorrow. Not looking forward to that!
Here are some adjectives for you to think about:
Amazing, Interesting, Exciting, Disgusting, Boring, Overwhelming, Understanding (can be a noun and an adjective). My friends is very understanding, she is compassionate. She is very understanding.
Also, one more example using some of these adjectives:
Example, I hope today’s episode wasn’t too boring for you, I hope it was an interesting episode.
I recommend you learn these adjectives, they will come in handy when you do you exams. Usually in English exams, whether you are doing IELTS or TOEFL or FCE in Spain, you will often be asked to describe something or someone. So learn adjectives. That’s my tip for you amigos.
And guys, please don’t feel disheartened and think oh I don’t get these stative verbs now, what does it all mean. Please be patient. There is an English saying that goes like this: Practise makes perfect. The more you practise, the better you become. Eventually, the more you practise English the more of these verbs start to make sense. But for now just keep your ears and eyes open.
In the next episode, which will be our Short and Sweet episode, I will mention some expressions that use this ING form. And then you can practise those to help you with pronunciation. How about that? How cool is that? Awesome!
Before we finish with today’s episode, I want to wish a happy birthday to another raving fan Maria Gabriela, hopefully my friend Eduardo didn’t ruin the surprise. Maria didn’t expect me to send her birthday wishes via my podcast. Hope you had a great day for your birthday Maria! All the best!
Now guys, hope you enjoyed today’s episode, and now my friends Elvis has left the building, this episode is coming to an end. The show has come to an end. Have a great week, it’s been a pleasure, hasta la proxima!