I’ve always known that “look” meaning “appear, seem” is followed by an adjective:
On hearing the news he looked anxious;
and “look” meaning “observe” is followed by an adverb:
He was looking anxiously.
However, I’ve recently come across the following sentence:
I saw the driver kneel down by the boy, he was looking very anxious.
On the one hand, Past Continuous indicates at the process-verb, on the other hand, the adjective follows a state verb.
Am I missing something? Am I a hopeless EFL-speaker?
You are over-analyzing. Your ‘driver’ sentence is a typical ‘appear/seem’ usage. Continuous is often used with state verbs to express immediacy or concern.
Thank you!!!
Hi Iryna,
Your sentence -
is incomplete. What you really need is He was looking anxiously at ***. The adverb then fulfills its function as describing the action of the verb ‘look at’. As far as ‘look’ in its sense of ‘appear’ or ‘seem’, the tense of the verb is irrelevant and can be used in a simple form or a continuous form.
Alan