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Grammar - Verbs of The Senses

The document discusses verbs of the senses in English. It identifies the five main sense verbs - look, smell, feel, taste, and see - and explains that they are typically followed by adjectives, not adverbs. It provides examples of using these verbs and discusses how some can be used in continuous tenses or with prepositions like "of". It also explains how the sense verbs can be used to draw comparisons using words like "like".

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614 views7 pages

Grammar - Verbs of The Senses

The document discusses verbs of the senses in English. It identifies the five main sense verbs - look, smell, feel, taste, and see - and explains that they are typically followed by adjectives, not adverbs. It provides examples of using these verbs and discusses how some can be used in continuous tenses or with prepositions like "of". It also explains how the sense verbs can be used to draw comparisons using words like "like".

Uploaded by

hemisphereph2981
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The verbs of the senses

A typical mistake my students make:


*You look well.
*I feel well.
The use of "well" in these sentences is incorrect because look and feel, as verbs of the
senses, should be followed by adjectives, not by adverbs. Instead, the sentences
should be: You look good / I feel fine. Let's see how these verbs work.

We have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. (Some people talk about a
sixth sense, which is in fact extrasensory perception). But today we are going to deal
with the verbs of the senses. Here are the most important:

sense verb

sight see, look

hearing hear, listen, sound

taste taste

touch feel

smell smell

Are these verbs followed by adjectives or by adverbs?


Some of these verbs can be used either as action verbs or stative verbs. In the former
case, they are followed by adverbs, but in the latter case, they are followed by
adjectives, because we are describing the subject rather than the action of the verb.
Compare these sentences:
- She looked at him angrily.
- She looked angry.
In the first sentence, look is an action verb, so, it is complemented by an adverb:
"angrily" describes the way that she looked at him. However, in the second
sentence look is a stative (or state) verb meaning "seem" or "appear", and the
adjective "angry" does not refer to the verb but to the subject. It is similar to saying
that "she is angry". As you can see, the second sentence does not describe an action
but a state. Going back to the sentences at the beginning, do the verbs show action or
state? That's right! There's no action implied, so, they must be followed by adjectives.
In this page you can see many examples of state vs. action verbs.

She looks angry


Can they be put in continuous (progressive) tenses?
Sense verbs can involve involuntary perception like hear or see, or voluntary
perception, like look or listen.
Involuntary perception verbs cannot be put in continuous tenses: *I'm seeing the
ocean from my window. Instead, we use can or could with them: I can see the ocean
from my window.
On the other hand, voluntary perception verbs can be used in continuous tenses: What
are you listening to?
However, see and hear can also be action verbs and can have different meanings to
that of perception, in which case they can be put in continuous tenses: see can mean
"meet someone": I'm seeing Mary for lunch. Hear can also mean "to listen to and
judge a case in court": The judge will be hearing the evidence today.
Feel, taste and smell do not have different forms for voluntary or involuntary
perception, so, they can only be put in continuous tenses when they are voluntary:
- What are you smelling?
- The cook is tasting the soup.
- I'm feeling the material to see if it is soft enough.
Whereas for involuntary actions, they can never be used in continuous tenses:
- This smells awful.
- My mum's food tastes delicious.
- This blanket feels so soft!
The verbs of the senses can be used with like, as if and as though.
She looks like her mum. (noun)
She looks as if / as though she is tired. (clause)

With the verbs of the senses (look, feel, taste, smell and sound) we can use likeand as
if or as though. (The last two are the same). You only have to take into account
that like is followed by a noun or noun phrase and as if, as though are followed by a
clause.

 Your brother looks like a rugby player. (noun phrase)

 You look as if you haven't slept for ages! (clause: Subject + Verb)

 You are so pale! You look as though you had seen a ghost! (clause: Subject + Verb).

Please, note that the verbs of the senses can also be followed directly by an adjective:

 These shoes feel comfortable.


 What are you cooking? It smells delicious!
 You look tired.
It sounds familiar to me.

Verbs of the senses in English

We use our senses on a daily basis, so it’s of great importance that we know how to
use the verbs to describe them correctly in English. In today’s post, we are going to
look over the different sense verbs in English, so that you gain a greater understanding
of how they are used in English.
Verbs of the senses

There are six verbs of the senses:

Look Sound

Smell Feel

Taste See

These verbs are very important because of how often they are used. Normally, when
using a verb of the senses, we place an adjective after the verb, instead of an adverb.

For example:

“Those earrings look expensive, are they real platinum?”

See in the example, the verb “look” is followed by the adjective “expensive”. Let’s look
at some more examples:

“That drawing looks great on the wall, do you like it?”

“I think the milk is off, it tastes horrible”

“Oliver feels lonely, because he doesn’t know anyone”

“Can you smell that? It smells delicious! I think Fiona is making a cake”

How to use “of” with taste and smell

The verbs “taste” and “smell” can also be followed by “of” and a noun.

For example:

“It smells of flowers in here, did you buy roses for me?”

“Can you taste that? This tea tastes of mint”


How to use “like” with verbs of the senses

We can use “like” to make comparisons. Let’s see some examples:

“Imma looks like her sister Anna”

“That icecream tastes like the one we bought in Italy”

“Mmm… it smells like summer!”

“Oh no! It feels like I’m getting a cold”

“Can you hear that? It sounds like the neighbour is playing his guitar again”

“Those clouds look like it’s going to rain”

“Do you feel like pizza? I do!”

“To feel” means to experience a particular emotion or physical sensation. The


expression “feel like” is used a lot in English and it means to want to do something.

“To feel like” is also used when we have a sensation or an impression of something.

English Sense Verbs – What They Are, How to Use Them

English sense verbs are special verbs used with each of the five senses. Here list with
each sense, and the sense verb that matches it:

 Sight – To see (sight)


 Hearing – To hear (hearing)
 Taste – To taste (taste)
 Touch – To touch (touch)
 Smell – To smell (smell)
Study the English sense verbs to greatly improve your English vocabulary.

 I see a blackbird outside my window.


 I hear loud music from my neighbor’s house every Friday night.
 Can you taste chili in this sauce?
 He hurt his finger badly and didn’t want me to touch it.
 She smelled smoke and knew the house was burning.

Grammar – How to Use English Sense Verbs

We can combine sense verbs with adjectives to express our personal preferences,
beliefs and feelings, for example:

 I look older than I am.


 Her white sauce tastes fantastic.
 His new sweater feels soft against the skin.

We can also use sense verbs to express a similarity between two or more objects. For
example:

 John looks like my old boyfriend.


 That cake tastes like ones my grandmother used to bake.
 It feels cold here just as it did in Alaska.

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