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We're guessing this episode is going to boost your Englishfluency.
In this second part of a three-partseries, we dive into state of verbs for thoughts andopinions.
When can you use Verplus I&G and when should you stick with presenttense?
Find out today to deepen connections inEnglish.
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Hey,Aubrey, quickupdate.
So I am flying to Boston next Fridaymorning.
So we need to record on a differentday.
We normally record onFridays, but can't doit.
Okay, noproblem. When are youthinking?
Ooh, I wonder if our listeners are listeners just had an inside look into our typicalconversations.
Right. I loveit.Right.
Schedulingrecording.
And this is interesting because I didn't say when do youthink?
Right. Are you thinking which might have sounded strange to some of you or you might have been thinkinglike,yes, why do native speakers saythat?
I don'tunderstand. That's not what Ilearned.
Yes, I'm so excited in thisseries.
We're letting our listeners in on a littlesecret,right?
That some of these state of verbs can actually be used in the I&Gform.
Socool. Socool.Yes. And in part one of theseries, we answered a question specifically about like love these state of verbs ofemotion.
So don't missthat. If you missedit, scrollup.
It's episode2220, like or liking your grammar questionsanswered.
Be sure to hit follow so that you don't miss this awesomeseries.
This is part two of a three partseries.
Lovely. Hit that followbutton,guys.
I'm going to read the question from mylistener.
Unfortunately, we don't have the listenersname, but we appreciate any and allquestions, especially specificquestions.
Right,Aubrey?Absolutely.
Yeah. So send them into support atallersenglish.com.
We'll make sure it gets to our team toyou,Aubrey, to Michelle to plan theseepisodes.
And we will feature your question on theshow.
Allright. Here wego. Allright.
So the grammarquestion, which Iunderstand, but can'texplain, is the use of state ofverbs.
Forexample,want, understand in the present continuoustense.
We, non-nativespeakers, have always been taught that those kinds of verbs are normally not used in the progressivetenses.
Has this rule beenchanged?
Ifso, is that for spoken Englishonly?
Andgenerally, is it because the language is alwaysevolving?
Mm. Right off ofthat, what do youthink,Aubrey?
What'syour, I love thisquestion.
And you have really hit the nail on thehead.
Whoeverthis, it lists whereis, who sent itin.
Both of those areaccurate.
It's really more for spokenEnglish.
Yes. Andyes, because languageevolves.
And thisis, it'slike,trendy,right?
To, to dothis. AndI, I think that once upon atime, many yearsago, it wasn't thecase.
Yeah, it's so fun because I watched the showGhosts.
I've told you about theshow.
You really should check itout.
It's such a cuteshow. And it's so well done because they take all these ghosts that died on this upstate New York mansionproperty, all the way back to like the1500s.
You have people from the roaring20s, one person from the roaring20s, one person from Millet RevolutionaryTimes.
And they all speakdifferently.
Right. That's the part that I find the mostinteresting.
And youknow, it's sointeresting.
People,like, what's he this wouldn'tsay?
When are youthinking?No, lovingchocolate.
Can you makeno?Honestly,like, even the guy from the90s, there's this guyPete, this character from the90s.
And he's so90s. Oh mygod, he'sgreat.
Awesome. He wouldn't have even saidthat.
So,yeah, it'sevolving.
It'strendy, but wedo, we do it alot.
You guys are hearing it alot.
And we get a lot of questions aboutthis.
So I'mexcited. We're doing this series to clarify for you guys when you can do it because some state of verbs we do thiswith, but some you reallycan't.
So we dove into emotions like like and love in that firstpart.
Today we are talking about these other kinds ofverbs, thoughts andopinions, state ofverbs.
Sometimes we can do this and sometimes wecan't.
Yes, we have a category of two buckets today of the ones that you can actually put them into the progressive as well as just the presentform.
And then we have a bucket where youcannot, where we do not dothis.
Absolutely. And these are just the most common state ofverbs.
This is certainly not an exhaustivelist.
There are abunch, but these are the ones that are going to come up really often in conversations foryou.
Okay,cool. So let's go throughwhat, what are the ones in the bucket of you can actually go ahead and experiment in the present continuoustense.
We'll dothis.Awesome.
So firstthink,right? I thinkso.
I thinkthis. But then we also willsay,oh, I'm thinking we made a mistake and we're making it more of a momentary action that I'm currently thinking this maybe nextweek.
I'll change mymind.Yeah, andagain, I want to reemphasize the first part of the question from thelistener.
Is it for spoken Englishonly?
Yes, I wouldn'treally, if youknow, if I were writing some kind ofreport, I wouldn'treally, because this is articulating thoughtslive.
Exactly. In themoment, I would rework mythought.
I think we must have made amistake.
I believe we made amistake,right?
Right. And so for informal texts oremails, we write like wespeak.
So you might seethis, but for formalwriting, just like yousaid,Lindsay, we wouldsay, we wouldn't saythis.
It's very much spokenEnglish.
Yeah,totally. And thenagree.
Okay, thisone. So I'm agreeing withyou.
Don'tworry. Stop freakingout.
I'm agreeing withyou.Right?
I'm actually agree withyou.
This is veryspecific.Right?
Usually we would justsay, I agree with you ingeneral.
I'd be talking about our state ofmind.
But if you are in the moment having a conversation and someonesays, you're not listening to myside.
And yousay, I'm agreeing withyou.
You're not listening tome.
You're talking about rightnow.
In thismoment, listen tome.
What I'msaying, I'm agreeing withyou.
Right.Totally. And thendoubt.
I'm doubtingmyself.Right?
Or I doubtthat. Or you ingeneral, like you doubt something ingeneral.
But right now in thismoment, I mightsay,ooh, I'm doubtingmyself.
You guys willsay, on a regularbasis, I doubtmyself.
Right?Yes.Absolutely.
Both work atall. It depends on the context and thetime.
This is all aboutlike, is this a momentarythought, a momentaryaction?
I'm turning it into an actionverb.
Or is it a state ofverb? Is it a state ofmind?
Guessing. I'm guessing he won't likethis.
Very common to hearthat.
Absolutely. And ofcourse, wesay, I guessnot.
We'll also use this as a state of verb in whichcase,present,simple.
Yeah. When we are talking about this momentaryaction, Iagree.
This is socommon. I do this all thetime.
I'm guessing he'll belate.
I'm guessing we shouldn't dothis.
And it's because I'm talking about my state of mind right now in thismoment.
Yeah. That's a really goodone.
Really puts you into people into yourmind.
Right?Really. It is kind of a connectionphrase.
I'm guessing this willhappen.
Becauseyeah, it gives youpeople, it givespeople, you're talking to a slice of yourmind.
Loveit.Yes. And there aremore,right?
Like,imagine,remember, we mightsay, I'm remembering that lastweek, I did it atthat.
It's, there aremore, but these are the mostcommon.
Definitely, if you have to pick a few to start using and progressive to sound morenative.
Today, these are the ones you want tochoose.
Allright.Cool. Now we're going to take a break and then we'll come back to the ones that we cannot change intoI.N.G.
Yes.Okay. We areback. SoAubrey, believe would be our first one that can we saybelieving?
No, wedon't.Right? We say I believeyou.
I believe this because we're talking aboutsomething, abelief.
That's not something we talk about as being true in amoment.
We don't give ittime. I would never saylike, I'm believingyou.
I'm believingit. Thisis.
Yeah. Wedon't, we don't say it thatway.
What aboutpreferences?
What can we dothere?Yeah.
Same thing for all ofthese.
Don'tusing. We don't recommend using them in presentprogressive.
You're going to saylike, I prefer oatmeal raisincookies.
We would not say I'm preferring this because it'smuch.
This is just like a solid state of verb that you can't turn into anaction.
Yeah. And the other episode we talkedabout,oh, I'm really liking these new restaurants cropping up inDenver.
Right. But I wouldn't say it seems like you should be able tosay, I'm really preferring these new restaurants cropping up inDenver, but youcan't.
So it doesn't follow the same logic of the end to pull in a pro tip from partone.
Make sure to go listen to itguys.
It's a lot about how much passion is there and prefer is soneutral.
Allright. It's for you to prefer this type ofcookies.
I'm loving chocolate chip cookiesthough.
Yeah. That was kind of our takeaway from thatepisode.
Yeah. What'sthe, what's the temperature level of what you'resaying?
Their motion is ourpassion.
Absolutely. It prefers definitely a very mutedverb.
Yep.Exactly. So don't say I'mpreferring.
Just I prefer all ofthese.
Don't say I'mbelieving.
I'mpreferring.Nope.Right.
And then I know that we almost never say we never say because same asbelieve.
Right. It's really the samemeaning.
I know this or I don't not going to say I'm knowing this rightnow.
No, doesn'twork.Mean.
I meanit. Or she means what shesays.
Never say she's meaning what she'ssaying.
No.Exactly. And this is the first one that's really tricky because that word meaning doesexist.
But it's anoun,right? The meaning of this sentence isblank.
That is not at all related to the verbmean.
So don't let yourself beconfused.
If you see the wordmeaning, that is not a state of verb being used at the I andG.
Unfortunately English istricky.
And these words also exist in otherforms.
And we're going to see that one more time rightnow.
Exactly. What isthat?What, where do we have to be carefulalso?
Understand. We only say Iunderstand,right?
This,this,understand, youknow, the when we talk about these being thoughts andopinions,right?
This is my thought that I understand that we wouldn't say I'm understanding you like me and Iunderstand.
But that one doesexist,right?
Lindsay,understanding.
Yeah, we have anunderstanding,right?
Or I'm veryunderstanding.
Exactly. We have thenoun.
Yeah. We have thisunderstanding.
It's athing. And then we also have theadjective.
I'm an understandingperson.
So because that word exists as an adjective in anoun, you might be confused and try to use it as a state of verb I andG.
We don't say it thatway.
If you want to tellsomeone, you understand where they're comingfrom, justsay, Iunderstand.
I understand where you're comingfrom.
That could be another great episode for a listener'sobry.
Is the ones that exist as I andG.
Yeah. There's so much trickers or roots that exist in verbform, nounform, adjectiveform.
And how do we parse out the differences usingcontext?
We canthink, Imean, even native speakers can sometimes get confused with some ofthem, Ithink.
Yeah.Absolutely. And we have done some episodes that are related where adjectives andnouns, like how do we usethem?
Be sure you're hitting follow because Iagree,Lindsay.
I think we should dive into that again in thefuture.
Okay. Let's put it into lifehere.
We've been doing a lot ofdefinitions,examples.
Let's put it into a roleplay.
We are eating at arestaurant.
Lovethat. Allright. Start usout.
So this play seemsamazing.
I'm thinking I want to taste everything on thismenu.
It does all lookdelicious.
I usually prefer the place inMidtown, but I'm excited to try somethingnew.
I'm guessing we couldn't get in therethough.
I doubt we could get areservation.
Nice.Okay.Yes. So I'm thinking I want to taste everything on themenu.
Verycommon, verytrendy.
Absolutely. And both would workhere.
You couldsay, I think I want to taste everything on themenu.
The exact samemeaning, but because you can also make it this momentary action more in themoment, you can saythis.
I'm thinking I want to taste everything on thismenu.
It might sound grammaticallyincorrect.
Do you guys out therelistening?
You found out intextbooks, teachers told you not to dothat.
We do it in languagesevolving.
It's casualEnglish. It's not a grammarerror.
Right.Exactly. That's the way wespeak.
Yeah. I do sitdown. I had to have dinner with anyone and you got to handle themenu.
The first thing that your dining partner is going to look across thetable,say,hmm, what are youthinking?
What are youthinking? That's such a goodpoint.
We don't say what do youthink?
It'slike, what do you think about what I'm going todo?
No, it's what are youthinking?
Which means what do you think you're going toorder?
I would say what do you think if it's more like a big life decision that's going beyond just this moment looking at thismenu?
Hey, what do you think I should do about thisproblem?
Right? That'sdifferent.
Yeah.Yes. I'm thinking it's very much about thismoment.
You're looking at themenu.
What do you think you'llorder?
What do youthink?Yeah.
But socommon, incrediblycommon.
Yeah. And to think that this isn't really being taught around the world and textbooks from what we gather from ourlisteners, there's big gaps missingguys.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
That's why you have all ofthis.
Where some of thegrammar, some of the grammar websites arelike, we can't teach this because textbooks often say it'sincorrect.
So you'll see it in forums and belike,oh,yeah, we say it thisway.
But it can be confusing if you're trying to learn from forums because there will be people disagreeing with eachother.
Yeah. We like to hang out in the great areas ofEnglish, don'twe?
Absolutely. That's what we comehere.
We willshare. This is how we talk and this is how you can talk toyou.
Because our value is higher than the linguistic guide or thedictionary.
It's about connection and whether you're saying it correctly or incorrectly or in the greatarea, you can connect and that should be thegoal.
So just make sure we're right onthere.
These will make you sound like anative.
Native English speakers are not going to hear this and think it's amistake.
They're going to hear this and think yousound.
You're speaking the way theyspeak.
That sounds very natural and there's more connectionthere.
Sure.Okay. So finishing uphere, I usually prefer the place inMidtown, but I'm excited to try somethingnew.
In thatcase, we never go into I and G with thatone.
You would never say I'm preferring the place in Midtown thesedays.
It just soundsstrange,right?
I usually prefer to doit.
Yeah.Yeah.Okay. When I said I'm guessing we couldn't get in therethough.
And this really I'm guessing is verycommon.
I wouldn't say I guess we couldn't get inthere.
That's a differentmeaning.
I could say I'm thinking we couldn't get in therethough.
These have the same meaning of like right now in thismoment.
This is what I'mthinking.
Yeah.Exactly. I'm thinking we couldn't get in therethough.
You're kind of putting forth a point ofview.
And it's an assumption like aguess, but this is the way we say it to almost like soften it to belike, I don't know forsure, but I'm guessingthis.
Yeah. It's been of softening goingon.
And then I you said at theend, I doubt we could get areservation.
Yeah. So those Midtown restaurants hard to get areservation.
But thesedays, I wonder if that's changing with so many people working from behind that's changing with so many people working from homelunchtime.
I wonder if it's easier to eat at the fancy places inMidtown.
Yeah. I don't know as far as NewYork, but inArizona, it's hard to get a reservation thesedays.
And a lot of places are takingreservations.
You just have to go and wait ahour.
Oh,yeah. Places do thatnow.
Yeah, it'strue. And everyone has to be there before you actually put your namein.
Have you seenthat?Yeah,absolutely.
We see that alot. It's sohard.
It'shard. So we want to be able to show up andeat.
Iknow. And this lastone, I think it's good to point out you could say eitherhere,right?
I could havesaid, I'm doubting we could get areservation.
Or I doubt we could get areservation.
These really are interchangeable in thatcontext.
Yes, loveit. What's thetakeaway?
I think we said it a little bit earlier is we're hanging out in a gray areahere,guys.
And, youknow, we're notlinguists.
Our value isconnection.
Okay.Absolutely.Yes,exactly.
We want you guys to be able toconnect.
And state of verbs are such a great way to connect because often these are about what you'refeeling, what you'rethinking.
And you want to be able to share that with those in English that you're speaking to in order to deepen yourconnections.
Yeah. It's such anopportunity.
Anytime you're sharing something from your own mind andheart, it's such an opportunity and bringing people in with the I and G just brings it tolife.
Absolutely.Yes, I loveit.
I'm excited for you guys to have these tips to know whichverbs, which state of the verbs you can do this with and which you should avoid so that you can deepen thoseconnections.
Allright. Goodstuff,Aubrey.
I'll see you back here verysoon.
Awesome.Thanks,Lindsay.
Allright.Bye.Bye. Thanks for listening to all earsEnglish.
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