State VS Action Verbs - The difference & The implications
Welcome to our guide on State versus Action Verbs in English!
So, what’s the difference?
- Action Verbs describe activities, processes, or events that we can see or do. They refer to actions that happen physically or mentally (e.g., run, eat, drink).
- State Verbs describe a condition, feeling, or possession. They express states of being rather than actions and often refer to thoughts, emotions, senses, relationships, or possession (e.g., believe, love, own).
A key point is that action verbs can be used in all verb tenses, including continuous forms, while state verbs are rarely used in continuous tenses.
Have a look at the table below.
So, we’ve just seen that ACTION verbs can be used in any tense whereas STATE verbs are usually only used in the Simple, i.e. non-continuous, tenses.
Now, let’s look at some of the most common state verbs:
Have a look at some of those verbs used in short, example sentences below:
So far so good? Ok, well…There are some very common verbs which have one meaning when used as a STATE and mean something completely different when used as an ACTION! Have a look at these:
