Thanksgiving and English Grammar
2021-11-26
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1Every year around the Thanksgiving holiday,
2a strange ceremony happens in Washington, DC.
3The president stands outside the White House,
4gives a brief speech and then officially pardons a turkey.
5A pardon is a declaration that someone will not be punished.
6You might be asking yourself,
7"What is the connection between turkeys, Thanksgiving and grammar?"
8In today's report, we explore what turkeys can teach you about English verbs.
9In particular, we will show you how Thanksgiving can teach you to use stative verbs.
10We will also show you the difference between stative and progressive verbs.
11The term stative verb refers to a verb that has a stative meaning.
12In other words,
13these verbs show or describe conditions
14or situations that do not do anything but exist.
15Verbs that commonly have a stative meaning include:
16-verbs that show emotional states, such as love and dislike;
17-verbs that describe sense perceptions, such as smell or taste;
18-verbs that show existence, such as seem or look.
19In the present tense,
20a verb with a stative meaning is generally used in its simple form.
21"I love turkey,"
22 or "Americans like turkey" are two examples.
23Verbs that have stative meanings are generally not used in the progressive tense.
24So, you will probably not hear a native speaker say,
25"I am loving turkey," or "Americans are liking turkey."
26Do not fear: we can use our Thanksgiving example to make the point clearer.
27Imagine you are at an American store.
28You hear a conversation between a customer and a store employee.
29The customer wants to buy a turkey that weighs 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms.
30Unlike the turkey from the pardoning ceremony,
31this turkey will have a sad fate:
32the dinner table.
33The conversation you hear might go like this:
34Customer: How much does that turkey weigh?
35Butcher: It weighs 10 pounds.
36Customer: How much does it cost?
37Butcher: It costs 20 dollars.
38In the dialogue, you can hear two examples of stative verbs: weigh and cost.
39The butcher said, "The turkey weighs 10 pounds,"
40and "The turkey costs 20 dollars."
41In both cases, the verbs have a stative meaning:
42The butcher is describing a condition or situation that simply exists -
43the weight and cost of the turkey.
44Now imagine you are eating Thanksgiving dinner with an American family.
45You might hear any one of the following sentences:
46"I love turkey!"
47"I dislike turkey."
48"The turkey smells wonderful!"
49"The food tastes great!"
50"The turkey seems undercooked."
51"The turkey looks awful."
52All these sentences include stative verbs.
53You might notice that the verbs are also in the simple present form.
54So, why would an English speaker not say,
55"The turkey is seeming undercooked," or, "I am disliking turkey?"
56Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber are two English grammar experts.
57They say that, in general,
58English speakers use the progressive tense
59only when the subject of the verb actively controls the state or action.
60In addition,
61English speakers generally use the progressive
62only when the verb describes an action or state that happens over an extended period of time.
63So, you would not hear an English speaker say,
64"The turkey is seeming undercooked"
65 because the subject of the verb, the turkey, does not control its state -
66 being undercooked.
67For the same reason, you would not hear an English speaker say,
68"I am disliking turkey,"
69because the verb's subject, I,
70probably does not have control over the action of disliking turkey.
71Now, some verbs can have stative and progressive meanings.
72Consider these examples:
73"The food tastes good."
74"The president is tasting the food."
75In the first sentence, the food does not control whether it is good or bad.
76As a result,
77 the verb taste has a stative meaning because it simply describes the condition of the food.
78In the second sentence,
79"The president is tasting the food,"
80the subject of the verb, the president, has control over his action.
81In addition, the action takes place over an extended period of time:
82the president must think about tasting food,
83then raise the food to his mouth,
84then consider its quality.
85So, you could say that the verb taste in this example has a progressive meaning.
86The next time you are reading or listening to the news,
87pay special attention to the verbs.
88Notice when the progressive form is used,
89and when the simple form is used.
90Then ask yourself why.
91Does the verb's subject control the action?
92Does the action occur over an extended period of time?
93Or does the verb simply describe a condition that exists?
94If you are still confused
95about whether you should use a simple
96or progressive verb in your own conversations,
97Conrad and Biber have one tip that might help you.
98They say that in conversations,
99English speakers use simple verbs around 120 times in every 1,000 words.
100Progressive verbs are much less common:
101they appear fewer than 20 times in every 1,000 words.*
102I'm Alice Bryant.
103And I'm John Russell.
1Every year around the Thanksgiving holiday, a strange ceremony happens in Washington, DC. The president stands outside the White House, gives a brief speech and then officially pardons a turkey. 2A pardon is a declaration that someone will not be punished. 3You might be asking yourself, "What is the connection between turkeys, Thanksgiving and grammar?" 4In today's report, we explore what turkeys can teach you about English verbs. 5In particular, we will show you how Thanksgiving can teach you to use stative verbs. We will also show you the difference between stative and progressive verbs. 6What is a stative verb? 7The term stative verb refers to a verb that has a stative meaning. In other words, these verbs show or describe conditions or situations that do not do anything but exist. 8Verbs that commonly have a stative meaning include: 9-verbs that show emotional states, such as love and dislike; 10-verbs that describe sense perceptions, such as smell or taste; 11-verbs that show existence, such as seem or look. 12In the present tense, a verb with a stative meaning is generally used in its simple form. "I love turkey," or "Americans like turkey" are two examples. 13Verbs that have stative meanings are generally not used in the progressive tense. So, you will probably not hear a native speaker say, "I am loving turkey," or "Americans are liking turkey." 14Thanksgiving and stative verbs 15Do not fear: we can use our Thanksgiving example to make the point clearer. 16Imagine you are at an American store. You hear a conversation between a customer and a store employee. The customer wants to buy a turkey that weighs 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms. 17Unlike the turkey from the pardoning ceremony, this turkey will have a sad fate: the dinner table. 18The conversation you hear might go like this: 19Customer: How much does that turkey weigh? 20Butcher: It weighs 10 pounds. 21Customer: How much does it cost? 22Butcher: It costs 20 dollars. 23In the dialogue, you can hear two examples of stative verbs: weigh and cost. 24The butcher said, "The turkey weighs 10 pounds," and "The turkey costs 20 dollars." In both cases, the verbs have a stative meaning: The butcher is describing a condition or situation that simply exists - the weight and cost of the turkey. 25Now imagine you are eating Thanksgiving dinner with an American family. You might hear any one of the following sentences: 26"I love turkey!" 27"I dislike turkey." 28"The turkey smells wonderful!" 29"The food tastes great!" 30"The turkey seems undercooked." 31"The turkey looks awful." 32All these sentences include stative verbs. You might notice that the verbs are also in the simple present form. 33Why not use a progressive verb? 34So, why would an English speaker not say, "The turkey is seeming undercooked," or, "I am disliking turkey?" 35Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber are two English grammar experts. They say that, in general, English speakers use the progressive tense only when the subject of the verb actively controls the state or action. 36In addition, English speakers generally use the progressive only when the verb describes an action or state that happens over an extended period of time. 37So, you would not hear an English speaker say, "The turkey is seeming undercooked" because the subject of the verb, the turkey, does not control its state - being undercooked. 38For the same reason, you would not hear an English speaker say, "I am disliking turkey," because the verb's subject, I, probably does not have control over the action of disliking turkey. 39Now, some verbs can have stative and progressive meanings. 40Consider these examples: 41"The food tastes good." 42"The president is tasting the food." 43In the first sentence, the food does not control whether it is good or bad. As a result, the verb taste has a stative meaning because it simply describes the condition of the food. 44In the second sentence, "The president is tasting the food," the subject of the verb, the president, has control over his action. 45In addition, the action takes place over an extended period of time: the president must think about tasting food, then raise the food to his mouth, then consider its quality. So, you could say that the verb taste in this example has a progressive meaning. 46What can you do? 47The next time you are reading or listening to the news, pay special attention to the verbs. 48Notice when the progressive form is used, and when the simple form is used. Then ask yourself why. Does the verb's subject control the action? Does the action occur over an extended period of time? Or does the verb simply describe a condition that exists? 49If you are still confused about whether you should use a simple or progressive verb in your own conversations, Conrad and Biber have one tip that might help you. 50They say that in conversations, English speakers use simple verbs around 120 times in every 1,000 words. 51Progressive verbs are much less common: they appear fewer than 20 times in every 1,000 words.* 52I'm Alice Bryant. 53And I'm John Russell. 54John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. 55* See Conrad, Susan and Biber, Douglas. Real Grammar: A Corpus-Based Approach to English. Pearson-Longman. 2009. Pgs. 4-6 56____________________________________________________________ 57Words in This Story 58stative - adj. expressing a state, condition, or relation 59progressive - adj. of or relating to the progressive tense of a verb 60dislike - v. to not like (something or someone) 61undercooked - adj. not cooked enough