Present continuous

[Elsa]

Hi everybody, could someone help me with these?

Why it doesn't say "I'm hearing music at this moment" or "I'm seeing a picture now", but "I'm looking you now" isn't wrong?

Are both of them right?
This cake is great. It tastes really good.
I'm tasting the cake and it's really good.

And which one is right?
Can you ring me back in few minutes? I'm having / have a dinner

Thanks.

[Alan]

Hi Elsa,

An interesting question, which I will try and answer.

It's really a difference between «state» and «action».

If you take the two verbs see and hear — they both describe states or situations which are the same all the time.

If you have eyes, you can see. If you have ears, you can hear. In both cases it's not usually necessary to use the continuous form because the two verbs describe a continuous state anyhow.

The verbs «look» and «listen» on the other hand can describe an action and can therefore be used in the continuous form.

You can see the sky because you have eyes but possibly you are not looking at the clouds.

You can hear a noise because you have ears but you are not listening (an action) to the sound of the birds.

The verb «taste» can have a passive (describing a state) and an active meaning also.

The food tastes good to you because you are using your sense of taste in the same way as the sense of hearing or seeing (the senses are there all the time) but if you are tasting some particular food it means you are actively trying to find out the taste/flavour of something.

Your last point about have or having is slightly different. Have here is used (as it is used to mean so many different things) to mean eat.

And here it is the difference between the Present Simple for habitual descriptions and Present Continuous for actual descriptions.

So I have (eat) my dinner at 8 every evening but I am having (eating) my dinner now and can't talk to you.

Hope this helps
Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Elsa]

Of course it helps! Your explanation is very clear and useful. Though I'm sure I'm going to have another doubt about this topic very soon. Thank you for your time!