Stative verbs

Use of the board

Students get to grips with this tricky verb class by reviewing their functional uses.

Use the boardwork below to introduce your students to the basic rules that apply to stative verbs. Step through each usage and elicit a list of example verbs.

Dynamic vs stative

The students sort a list of verbs into their correct category: Dynamic or stative.

To begin, add the following list of verbs to the bottom of the board at random, minus their categorisation (Add more if you wish):

Stative: Suppose, seem, prefer, remember, belong
Dynamic: Become, talk, grow, sleep, learn

Then draw a table on the board with two columns, dynamic and stative. Tell your students to copy this table into their books and populate it with the verbs from the board.

When finished, they can compare their completed tables with a partner and work together to make some sentences using these verbs. They should aim for one sentence for each verb.

Stative verb interview prep

A writing activity where the students create interview questions that they will use to interview a classmate during the next exercise. 

Tell the students to select five state verbs and use them to create a list of interview questions that they will later use to interview a partner. As the students work individually on their queries, elicit potential follow-up questions and encourage their use in the interview.

Stative verb interview

Students will use the questions from the previous exercise to interview a partner. 

Before they begin, you may want to hold a demo interview with a student from the class. Demonstrate how to ask follow-up questions and encourage the students to look for opportunities to do this during their conversations.

Teacher: Do you belong to a youth club?
Student: No, I don't
Teacher: Do you belong to any type of club?
Student: Yes, I do Karate.
Teacher: How long have you done karate?

You should monitor the interviews for the correct usage of stative verbs and have the students report back on what they learned from their partners when the conversations have finished.

Dice generator: Stative verbs

Players have to make sentences using themes and stative verbs that have been decided by the throw of the dice. 

You will need dice or dice app on your phone. To set this up, make a list of themes on the board and number them, six will be enough. Then make a separate list of 6 or 12 stative verbs and number them. 

For each round, players roll the dice to select a theme and a stative verb. To win a point, they must then make a grammatically correct sentence from those selections. You can play this as a head to head, individual or team game. 

Themes

• food
• countries
• animals
• sports
• free time
• transport
• jobs 

Verbs (Try to elicit the meaning of each one) 

• smell
• see
• think
• love
• prefer
• doubt
• seem
• understand
• know
• care
• own
• need

Give one point for a correct sentence. If you're playing a team game, give a bonus point to the team with the funniest statement and set a time limit.