Stative vs dynamic verbs

(1) ?John is knowing the answer.

The ? indicates oddity, but why does the sentence sound odd? Grammatically, the sentence seems fine if we contrast it with (2) below:

(2) John is painting the house.

Both have the same structure of a present progressive, but why is (2) a possible English sentence but not (1)?

The answer lies in the difference between stative and dynamic verbs.

Stative verbs are verbs that express a state. This state or condition is relatively stable and homogenous through time, and can be conceptualized as being contractable or expandable.

Dynamic verbs, on the other hand, are verbs that describe an action. This action normally involves some change of state and has a limited duration or a well-defined beginning and end.

The difference is an important one.

A dynamic verb in the present progressive, such as painting in sentence (2), can signify an on-going activity coinciding with present time.

A stative verb such as know, on the other hand, cannot normally be marked progressive. Being indefinitely contractable or expandable, it is easily accommodated by the present-time frame:

(3) John knows the answer.

And therefore the progressive aspect is redundant, which explains why sentence (1) is odd.

An US soldier?

ChannelNewsAsia - 3 March 2013

The article An before US is wrong. The correct article is A, because the initial sound in US is the consonant "j".

The trick is to remember that the indefinite article rule applies to sounds, not letters. So we say an umbrella, but a unicorn.

Less vs fewer

People sometimes confuse less with fewer. Particularly with less, the common mistake is to use it when fewer is the correct word:

(1) ?We had less customers yesterday.

Though both words mean not as many, they are used differently. The general rule is to use less for uncountable nouns and fewer for countable nouns:

Less for uncountable nouns

(2) There is less traffic now.
(3) I listen to less music when I'm travelling.
(4) There's less smoke here.
(5) I drank less coffee yesterday.

Fewer for countable nouns

(6) She made fewer calls last week.
(7) I had fewer coins than you.
(8) Fewer than 50 people attended the talk.
(9) There are fewer mistakes in her essay.

However, with nouns that denote time, money and distance, we use less:

(10) He had less than three hours to make a decision.
(11) I had less than ten dollars in my pocket.
(12) She ran less than five kilometres.