You're welcome! Thanks for commenting.

Hi Mayyah,

'We are watching a film and (we are) enjoying it' is best. (You can drop the repeated 'we are.') They are both action verbs, so the -ing form sounds best to indicate the continuing action.

Hi Ahmad, there's no difference in meaning. The usage difference is that the -ing form is less common and used for emphasis.

Hi Yousif, #2 is correct. Collective nouns like 'the police' can be tricky, but we usually think of the police as the individual police officers, so it's best to use a plural verb.

Hi Julia,

Good question. We can 'touch' in the continuous tense since it is an action verb. The non-action sense verb is 'feel,' not touch. Since we've already included 'feel' in the 'feelings and needs' category, I didn't include it again in the 'senses' category. I've changed it in the chart and in the post. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Hi Siti,

If you look under Exceptions (A, Non-Action Verbs with Action Meanings) in the post above, you'll see that there are some cases where non-action verbs can take the -ing form and become active verbs. Sometimes the verb has a different meaning (like having = eating) and sometimes it just emphasizes a longer action, as in your thinking example.

You're right that your first sentence is incorrect. We almost never use 'know' as a active verb.

Your second sentence is actually correct. We use 'think' as a stative verb when we are saying our opinion (e.g., I think it's a good decision) but as an active verb when we are planning, deciding, or thinking continuously about something/someone (e.g., I am thinking about moving to Europe).

Hi Kalai,

The second one is correct, "Are you not speaking Spanish?" and the first one is incorrect.

Just be careful when using negative questions in English. We would normally only ask "Are you speaking Spanish?" Someone would normally answer "Yes, I am." or "No, I'm not."

Negative questions in English are asked to show surprise or get confirmation. In your example, perhaps the speaker couldn't recognize the difference between Spanish and Portuguese. Maybe the other person mentioned they were from Portugal, and the speaker was surprised when they realized it must have been Portuguese and not Spanish they were hearing. In that case, the speaker could ask "Are you not speaking Spanish?"

See section E of this blog post for more examples and explanations: https://ellii.com/blog/negative-forms

"Are not you speaking Spanish?" is incorrect, so my advice is to not use it. You should only use "Are you not speaking Spanish?" during your exam.

Yes, you can say "Aren't you speaking [language]?" for the same reasons above, to express surprise or to confirm it. But we wouldn't say "speaking speech," we would say "speaking English" or "speaking Spanish." Be sure to include the name of the language.

Hi Kalai, this is an excellent question! After a preposition (e.g., without) we must use a gerund (-ing) form even when a verb is stative. So "knowing" is correct after a preposition. Another example is "She was fine after being treated at the hospital."

One change in your example is that we would usually say "whose phone number this was" instead of "what this phone number was." So the correct sentence would be: Forgive me. I called you without knowing whose phone number this was.