Page 43 - DENG103_English - I

English–I

Notes Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called “dynamic”, and can be used with continuous
tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called “stative”, and
cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with
continuous tenses with a change in meaning).
Dynamic verbs (examples):
• hit, explode, fight, run, go

Stative verbs (examples):
• be
• like, love, prefer, wish

• impress, please, surprise
• hear, see, sound
• belong to, consist of, contain, include, need

• appear, resemble, seem

Regular and Irregular Verbs
This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between
regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past
participle forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always
the same:-ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is
variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart.
regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle
• look, looked, looked
• work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle
• buy, bought, bought
• cut, cut, cut

• do, did, done

Regular verbs
English regular verbs change their form very little (unlike irregular verbs). The past tense and
past participle of regular verbs end in -ed, for example:
work, worked, worked
But you should note the following points:
1 Some verbs can be both regular and irregular, for example:
learn, learned, learned
learn, learnt, learnt
2. Some verbs change their meaning depending on whether they are regular or irregular, for
example “to hang”:

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