Verbs by situation type¶

Stative¶

Stative domain	What it expresses	Common verbs	Example sentence
Mental states	cognition, knowledge, belief	know, believe, understand, remember, realize	I understand the rule.
Emotions & attitudes	feelings, preferences, desires	love, like, hate, prefer, want, need	She likes coffee.
Perception (stative use)	sensory experience (non-dynamic reading)	see, hear, smell, taste, feel	I see the problem.
Possession	ownership or relation of having	have, own, belong, contain	They own a house.
States of being	existence, identity, appearance	be, exist, seem, appear	He is tired.
Relational/abstract states	relations, measurements, characteristics	cost, measure, weigh, depend, consist	This book costs ten euros.

Dynamic type	What it expresses	Key idea	Common verbs	Example sentence
Process (Activity)	ongoing action with no natural endpoint	activity in progress, no inherent completion	run, walk, swim, talk, read, work	She is running in the park.
Accomplishment	process leading to a natural goal or endpoint	duration + completion	write, build, paint, eat, read (a book), draw	He wrote a novel in a year.
Achievement	instantaneous change of state	sudden event, no duration	arrive, win, find, recognize, notice, reach	They arrived at midnight.
Semelfactive	single punctual event, repeatable	one-off “burst” event	knock, cough, blink, tap, sneeze, kick	She coughed loudly.