Thursday, April 07, 2022

LOVE should not be used in the Progressive form?

 Today, some ESL teaching materials and websites are still telling us not to use Verbs of Emotion in Progressive form: 

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DON’T USE THESE VERBS IN PROGRESSIVE FORM:

ENGLISH VERBS THAT CANNOT BE USED IN THE CONTINUOUS OR PROGRESSIVE FORM

Verbs of Emotion:  love, hate, prefer, mind, like, dislike, please, surprise, astonish, impress ...

(https://www.englishcoursemalta.com/.../english-verbs.../)

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But as the following screenshot shows, it's perfectly OK to say 'loving' (not just McDonald's "I'm lovin' it"). 

Below is an example I like to give in my Language Awareness course to show that even 'hate' can be used in the Progressive: 

If a woman says to a guy "I'm hating you for what I've done for you", the guy still has a chance. But if it is 'I hate you for ..." that the woman says, he is in real trouble.




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