1142: Verbs that Resist the Present Tense Jan 24, 2018

To simply say that something is in the present tense is not necessarily especially informative. This is not only because the present tense can be used to express the past tense (including non-past before) and future action—English does not technically have a future tense—but also, there are multiple forms that the present can take. A present tense verb can either be in the simple present of present progressive, and while the simple present tends to refer to habitual action that may or may not be ongoing at the time of the speech-act, verbs that describe an emotional or mental state of being (e.g. 'love', 'hate', 'fear') resist being put into the present progressive, that is to say, "...hate [object]" is far more common that "... (be) hating (an) [object]". It is not impossible to do this, but it will be deliberate; 'I am loving it' might emphasise that the subject used to not love whatever 'it' is, or also could simply draw attention to the statement due to its apparent ungrammaticality, and thereby demonstrate either that the speaker's feeling is stronger than a sense of wishing to maintain grammatical conventions, or otherwise make the statement noteworthy. With that said, hopefully you love Word Facts, and if you are loving it, support Word Facts on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts.