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Stative verbs express a state of being, condition, perception, emotion, or cognition. In a way, they are the opposite of action verbs.
Action verbs, or dynamic verbs, express things that happen and actions that a subject can perform. Stative verbs describe a “state,” which is a condition or situation that a subject experiences.
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A stative verb is defined as a verb which describes a “state” such as a state of being, thinking, or feeling, instead of expressing an action that’s happening.
For the most part, that definition is easy to follow, especially when contrasted with the idea of action (dynamic) verbs.
Stative verbs aren’t always easy to categorize but they can be organized loosely into several groups.
Verbs related to a subject’s cognition (thoughts) are stative verbs:
Verbs related to emotions, sentiments, or feelings are stative.
Verbs related to attitude or preference can overlap with categories of cognition or feelings and are stative.
When a verb expresses an action performed by the subject of a sentence, it is a dynamic verb.
If a verb is not something physical one can do, it’s a stative verb. Generally, the actions expressed by dynamic verbs can begin and finish, whereas stative verbs don’t necessarily have that same relationship with time.
For example:
This difference makes some verb tenses trickier — or not used at all — with stative verbs.
Every verb tense can express dynamic verbs.
An action verb can almost always be expressed in every tense because the different verb tenses are constructions that are meant to express when actions begin, end, and continue.
Since many stative verbs refer to states or conditions and not to actions that begin and end, not all verb conjugations work well with them. The progressive (or continuous) tenses are grammatically incorrect when used with many stative verbs:
This incompatibility between progressive tenses and stative verbs is true for many instances, but it isn’t always true because some stative verbs can be used in a dynamic sense.
Sometimes, a verb that is typically used to express an action can be used in a way that is more stative. This is typically the case with:
The best way to know if a verb is stative is to consider whether it is an action that can be performed and which has a start and end. If it’s not, then it is likely a stative verb.
While there are many exceptions, typically progressive tenses don’t sound right when it comes to verb conjugations for stative verbs.
When writing, correct verb conjugation is critical to making a positive impression and communicating a clear message. A reader may not necessarily know the grammatical name of a particular tense, but they’ll pick up on incorrect conjugations when they read them.
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