英语语法：67 Is "I'm Loving It" Proper Grammar?

Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us figure out whether a fast-food chain is on the cutting edge of grammar, or it’s just being creative with verb tenses. It’s time to dissect 1 the McDonald’s advertising 2 slogan “I’m loving it.”

An ESL teacher named Devaki wrote to say she uses the "I'm loving it" slogan in her classroom “as an example of incorrect grammar.”

The issue at hand is whether verbs like “to love” can be conjugated 4 in a progressive tense, which you use to indicate that something is happening at the moment and is continuing around the time to which you refer. In fact, progressive tense is also sometimes called continuous tense. The most common progressive tenses are

Present progressive: “I am running some errands” (It's present progressive because it's happening right now.)

Past progressive: “They were jumping for joy” (It's past progressive because it happened in the past.)

Future progressive: “I will be writing my essay all day tomorrow.” (It's future progressive because it will happen in the future)

Note how all of these activities are progressive because they continued; they happened for more than an instant.

Dynamic Verbs versus 5 Stative Verbs

It turns out that when it comes to progressive tenses, English is divided into two groups of verbs: dynamic and stative.

Dynamic verbs relate an action or a process. Common dynamic verbs are “to walk,” “to yell,” and “to read.” These verbs can be conjugated in progressive tenses, so it’s fine to say, “I will be walking all day” and “He was yelling at me.”

Stative verbs, on the other hand, describe a state of being and are not supposed to be conjugated in progressive tenses.

The About.com ESL site helpfully breaks stative verbs into four groups (1):

Verbs that show thought or opinion, such as “know” and “recognize” (I know her motives 6.)

Verbs that show possession, such as “own” and “belong” (The dog belongs to me.)

Verbs that show emotion, such as “love” and “need” (I love Squiggly)

Verbs that show senses, such as “feel” and “see” (I see what you mean).

That last group is especially tricky 7 because many of them can be stative or dynamic verbs depending on how you use them.

According to this division of verbs, you’re not allowed to say sentences such as “They are owning three cars” and “I am seeing the portrait.” Any native speaker will innately 8 sense that those two sentences sound odd.

Verbs That Are Both Dynamic and Stative

As I noted 9 earlier, complicating 10 the issue is the fact that some verbs can be both dynamic and stative (2). Take, for example, the verb “to be.” You can use "to be" in a progressive tense to mean “to behave,” as in “You are being naughty.” In this case, “to be” is being used as a dynamic verb. On the other hand, if you say, “She is a blonde,” “to be” is being used as a stative verb. You couldn’t say, “She is being a blonde.”

Here's another example with the verb "think." You can say, “I think you’re cute,” which is stative, and “I’m thinking about going on vacation,” which is dynamic.

Idiomatic 11 Uses of Stative Verbs

According to the rule, “I’m loving it” is not grammatically correct because it uses a stative verb—in this case, one that conveys emotion, love—in a progressive tense.

But, now we come to some idiomatic uses of stative verbs. You can conjugate 3 certain stative verbs in a progressive tense in the right context. I can easily imagine one lady saying to another, “Hey, Jean. I’m loving that new haircut!” On the other hand, it wouldn’t sound right to say, “I’m loving my mother.” You’d say, “I love my mother.” Another example might be the verb “to hear.” This is considered a stative verb, yet native speakers will be familiar with the statement “I’m hearin’ ya” to mean “I understand your point of view.” However, no native speaker would say, “I’m hearing the concert.”

The Verdict

“I’m loving it” does sound slightly off, and that draws attention. Perhaps that’s why McDonald’s chose it for their slogan, which launched in September 2003 (3). None of the dictionaries I checked sanction "loving" as a form of the verb "love," but the McDonald's slogan isn't the only instance where this sentence has been used in popular culture. Justin Timberlake has a 2003 song called “I’m Loving It” (4), and earlier the Scorpions 12 put out a song called “Still Loving You” (5), which contains the lyric 13 “I’m loving you.” Just recently, glamour 14.com had this to say about a maternity 15 dress: “I’m loving the hot hue 16, the sweet, off-the-shoulder neckline …” The article’s headline was “Loving Her Look: Amy Adams Redefines The Maternity Dress” (6).

We all know that advertisements, song lyrics 17, and fashion headlines aren't the places to turn for examples of good grammar, but we also know that native speakers of English can get creative with traditional grammar, and that sometimes grammatically iffy phrases catch on. Language is constantly changing. Enough people seem to be using stative verbs in progressive tenses that we can probably say it’s becoming more accepted in popular culture to use them that way. That said, it’s still probably best for ESL teachers to continue to advise their students not to say, “I’m loving it” or to use other potentially incorrect stative verbs in progressive tenses. ESL teachers should point out, though, that students will hear native speakers using stative verbs in progressive tenses when the moment seems right.