Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Mental process and sense verbs

352c

Some verbs are rarely used in the progressive form. These include verbs of mental

process (know, like) and sense verbs (smell, taste):

I

’ve known Anne at least forty-odd years, I would think.

(I’ve been knowing Anne …)

The water’s always 

tasted metallic to me.

Repeated or extended events which are felt to be developing, ongoing or perhaps

temporary may occasionally lead to the use of progressive for such verbs:

The water

’s definitely been tasting better since we bought the filter.

THE PRESENT PERFECT AND DEFINITE PAST TIME 

353

In spoken and written journalistic styles, the present perfect is sometimes used to

stress the current relevance of events, even though definite past time adjuncts may

be present:

[speaker is speaking in 1998, i.e. not ‘the early 1990s’]

We

’ve lost so much of our manufacturing industry 

in the 1980s and early 1990s

.

A man 

has been arrested

last night

and will appear in court tomorrow.