Study materials
Two sentences about the same person and the same city. The difference is not grammatical but about how you see the situation.
He lives in Kyiv.
He is living in Kyiv this year.
At this level the choice of form stops being a matter of rules. You are choosing not a tense but a vantage point: looking at the situation from outside as a fact, or from inside as a process.
The simple form is a view from outside
The simple form presents a situation as a whole fact: it is, or it was, and we do not look inside. The continuous form opens the middle: the situation is running, with a beginning and an end somewhere off camera.
He lives in Kyiv.
He is living in Kyiv.
That is why a continuous with a state verb reads not as an error but as a hint: the situation is felt to be temporary or unusual.
State verbs that suddenly move
The rule that state verbs have no continuous form stops working at this level. They do have one, and the form always adds something.
| Simple form | Continuous form | What was added |
|---|---|---|
| I think you're right. | I'm thinking about it. | a process instead of an opinion |
| She has a car. | She's having lunch. | an action instead of possession |
| He is rude. | He is being rude. | behaviour instead of a trait |
| The soup tastes good. | She is tasting the soup. | an action instead of a property |
He is generous.
He is being generous.
The second sentence often carries irony. That is exactly why speakers reach for is being: it lets you judge the behaviour without labelling the person.
Temporariness as a signal
The continuous form by itself announces that the situation has limits. So it turns up wherever the speaker wants to stress that this is not permanent.
I work in marketing.
I'm working in marketing at the moment.
The same mechanism runs in the past. Compare: She taught at the university means a permanent post, while She was teaching at the university hints at a particular period.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is taking a continuous where a permanent property is meant.
This soup is tasting good. → This soup tastes good.
The second is taking a simple form where temporariness matters.
I live with my parents until the flat is ready.
The third is missing the change of meaning in is being.
He is being polite.
All three are caught by one question. Am I describing a property, or something running for a limited time?
Try it right now
Describe your work in English in two sentences: one as a permanent fact, one as a temporary situation.
Then say one sentence about somebody you know with is being. Check whether the judgement changed.