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 PRACTICE ON POINTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• Present Summary
• General Truth
• At the Moment
• Habits & Customs
• Present Progressive
• Scheduled Events
• States of Being
• Sensory States
• Mental States
• Possession States
• Emotion States
• Other States
• Adv of Sequence
• Narration
• GenTruth Prac
• In Context
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Mental States

Thinking and Cognition

 

 

 

Mental-state verbs indicate a person's cognition   Few active examples exist; they mostly emphasize the on-going state, and in the case of "like" are more trendy in usage.

 

Mental States of Mind vs. Activities

MENTAL STATES AND ATTITUDES	MENTAL ACTIVITIES
Mental stative verbs refer to passive states of cognition (thinking, knowing, perception) about the surrounding world. They normally use nonprogressive verb forms.	These look-alike verbs indicate active states of thinking and cognition. They may take progressive verb forms.
He knows what he needs to do.
He believes he is right.
He thinks (that) he can win.	He is thinking about winning. (ongoing mental activity)
He understands the problem.
He recognizes the difficulties.	He is recognizing the faces of his friends who are grown up now. (ongoing mental activity)
He remembers everything that happened.	He is rememboring  his childhood. (ongoing mental activity)
He wants to graduate from college.
They need help to finish.
He loves her. not: He is loving her.
He hates living in the city.
He appreciates what you have done.	She is appreciating living with her parents again.
He likes attending school. not: He is liking school.
I feel (that) the "death sentence" is wrong.   (feel = think )

*How are you liking your new school? (This is a very informal usage that is newly entering our language.)
**I feel strongly about his issue (Using an adverb after "feel" is informal usage. )

 

 

 

 

Common Mistakes

ERROR	FIX
How are you liking your food? pop-q 4/19/2009	How do you like your food.
*How are you liking your new school?  (newtrend, informal usage)	How do you like your new school.

 

 

 

 

 

Practice

States of Thinking

 

 

1. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence. 
2. Compare your responses to the answers by clicking the the "show answers" button at the bottom.

#	YOUR RESPONSE	COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS
1.	Millions of Americans have started to change the way they eat. They — believe are believing that cutting calories, will improve health.
2.	However, they — don't understand aren't understanding that takes more than just dieting to lose weight.
3.	They have to exercise too. However, some people — hate are hating exercising.
4.	They — feel are feeling tired after a long day of work
5.	and — don't want aren't wanting to exercise.
6.	They — need are needing encouragement to complete their goals successfully.
7.	Fortunately, they — recognize are recognizing the importance to returning to healthier body weight.

 

 

 

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