NEVER Add "-ING" to These 16 Common Words

Overview

English with Lucy explains why common stative verbs such as know, need, understand, love, see, own, and belong generally do not take -ing in continuous tenses: they describe states rather than actions. The lesson groups examples by meaning—mental states, feelings, senses, possession, and qualities—and clarifies exceptions, including gerunds after certain verbs or prepositions and increasingly common informal continuous forms.

Key takeaways

Stative verbs describe conditions, opinions, feelings, possession, or qualities, so they generally use simple forms instead of continuous forms.
Think changes grammatical behavior with meaning: “I think that’s right” expresses an opinion, while “I’m thinking about the problem” describes mental activity.
An -ing form does not always indicate a continuous tense: it can function as a sentence subject, follow verbs such as hate, follow a preposition such as without, or appear in a set phrase.
Continuous forms of love and like, such as “We’ve been loving every moment,” are increasingly common in informal English but are not recommended for formal exams.
Some sense verbs can be stative or dynamic: “The curry tastes delicious” describes flavor, while “She’s tasting the curry” describes an action.
For possession and qualities, use forms such as own, belong, owe, contain, include, hold, and weigh without -ing when describing a state.

Chapters

0:00 Why Stative Verbs Like “Know” Usually Avoid -ing

“I know” and “you need” are correct where “I’m knowing” and “you’re needing” are generally not.
Dynamic verbs such as read, write, run, play, and sing describe activities; stative verbs describe relatively stable states.
Stative verbs are easier to learn in meaning-based groups than as one long memorized list.

3:25 Mental States, Feelings, and Exceptions to the Rule

Mental-state verbs include know, understand, and think when think means hold an opinion: “I think we’ll win.”
Think can take -ing when it describes active mental work or a temporary idea, as in “What are you thinking?”
Know takes -ing in other grammatical patterns: as a sentence subject (“Knowing Jenna…”), after hate, after the preposition without, or in “There’s no knowing.”
Love, hate, like, and similar emotion verbs can appear in informal continuous forms for temporary experiences, but traditional grammar and formal exams generally favor simple forms.

8:57 Sense, Possession, and Quality Verbs That Resist -ing

Sense verbs such as see, hear, smell, taste, and feel usually describe perception in simple forms: “Did you hear it?”
Sense verbs can become dynamic when their meaning changes: “I see John” means notice him, while “I’m seeing John” means meeting him.
Possession verbs include have, own, possess, belong, and owe; for example, “Those books don’t belong to you” and “Steve still owes me 20 quid.”
Quality verbs such as include, contain, and hold, plus measurement verbs such as weigh, generally describe states rather than ongoing actions.

Summary, takeaways, and chapters were generated by AI from the video's transcript and may contain errors. The video belongs to its creator, English with Lucy.