Intermediate Unit 1

Laszlo from Hungary: There is a rule: "we almost never use the countinous tense with some verbs. eg: be". But there is a sentence in this lesson: "You are being too negative." Is it an exception? Why?

Answer: You are correct that we generally do not use 'state' verbs (be, like, feel, hate, etc) in the -ing  form, because they are not describing actions.

However, some state verbs ('be' and 'think', for example) can sometimes be used as action verbs, depending on the meaning. For example: I am already thinking about my holiday or I am being nice to you because you helped me yesterday.