Is “look” an action verb or a state verb in English?

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Our question of the day – is “look” a state verb or an action verb? It can be both.

When a person is doing the action of looking, it is an action verb:

  • I’m looking around the store.
  • He’s looking at the painting.

Action verbs can be used in continuous form.

When talking about an object’s appearance, then it is a state verb, and can’t be continuous, so we say:

  • This painting looks very old.
  • This painting is looking very old.
  • Those books look interesting.
  • Those books are looking interesting.

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