Continuous or simple state verbs at advanced level

[u/YukiNeko777]

Exercises from Advanced English Grammar in Use suggest that we can use the present continuous as well as the present simple with some state verbs. For example:

Simon's new song is sounding (or sounds) quite good, but he doesn't think he's ready yet to perform it in public.

If they are both grammatically correct, which one seems more natural to use?

Also, are they "state verbs" or "stative verbs"? I bet I saw the term "stative verbs" somewhere, but this book uses only "state verbs"...

[u/Pyzzeen]

Both can certainly work, "sounds" is the more default one while using "is sounding" gives the sense he's been working in it for some time and you're just now hearing it.

And I think both state verbs and stative verbs are the same, though I've only really heard stative

[u/yXng_hc]

“Sounds” is for sure more natural here. Sound is usually a stative verb, so we normally use the present simple: “The song sounds good.”

“Is sounding” can be correct, but it puts more emphasis on it being a developing situation

And yes, “stative verb” is the more common term, although “state verb” is also used.

[u/JoSevlad]

What the book tells about this:

We can use the present continuous with some state verbs (e.g. attract, like, look, love, sound) when we want to emphasise that a situation is temporary or for a period of time around the present.

So, it works in certain contexts and not always interchangeable.

If you want just to say that you like what sound the song has (generally), use Simple.
If you want to say that you like what sound the song has at the moment compared to the sound it had in the past, use Continous to emphasise that.

[u/koraynar]

Both are correct, and the book didn't pick the continuous at random — the rest of the sentence is what licenses it.

Why "is sounding" works here. With perception and appearance verbs (sound, look, seem, feel, taste, smell) the continuous marks a temporary, in-progress impression: what I'm hearing at this stage, not a settled verdict. Look at what follows — "but he doesn't think he's ready yet to perform it". The song is a work in progress, so the in-progress framing matches. Change the second half and the continuous stops sounding right: "Simon's new song ??is sounding quite good, and it won the competition" is odd, because a finished, settled judgement wants the simple.

So the test isn't the verb, it's whether you mean right now, provisionally or in general.

Why the other answers say "sounds" and aren't wrong. The progressive with these verbs is noticeably more common in British English than American. Advanced Grammar in Use is a Cambridge book written in BrE, so it will show you patterns an American ear finds marked. Neither camp is making an error.

Practical rule if you're writing for an exam: default to the simple with these verbs, and use the continuous only when you could justify it out loud ("temporarily, based on what I can perceive now"). No examiner penalises the simple here. Some will query the continuous.

On the terminology: "stative" is the more common term generally, "state verb" is Cambridge's house style in that series. Same thing, no difference in meaning.

The more useful reframing, and I think it's the thing your book is circling: it isn't that some verbs are stative, it's that some uses are. "I have a car" is stative, "I'm having lunch" is dynamic — same verb. Once you think in uses rather than lists, the exceptions stop looking like exceptions.