Verbs of Sensation with Adjectives and "Like"

1. Verbs of Sensation

Verbs of sensation describe how something looks, sounds, tastes, smells, or feels.

Common verbs:

1. look
2. sound
3. taste
4. smell
5. feel

Examples:

1. The cake tastes delicious.
2. Your idea sounds interesting.
3. The soup smells good.

2. Adjectives After Verbs of Sensation

After verbs of sensation, we use an adjective, not an adverb.

Subject + verb of sensation + adjective

Examples:

1. This tastes bad.
2. It looks great.
3. The flowers smell nice.

Correct:

1. It smells nice.

Incorrect:

1. It smells nicely.

3. Adjectives vs Adverbs

After most verbs, we use an adverb.

Example:

1. He cooks badly.

After be and verbs of sensation, we use an adjective.

Examples:

1. The food is bad.
2. The food tastes bad.

4. State Verb Behavior

Verbs of sensation are usually state verbs, so they are not normally used in continuous tenses.

Correct:

1. The soup tastes good.

Incorrect:

1. The soup is tasting good.

Common exceptions

Feel can be used in continuous for emotions or temporary states.

1. I’m feeling tired today.

Look can be used in continuous when it means to direct your eyes.

1. What are you looking at?

5. Questions with Verbs of Sensation

We often ask questions about sensations using How or What … like.

Examples:

1. How does it taste?
2. What does it taste like?

Short answers often use an adjective.

1. It’s delicious.
2. It’s sweet.

6. Using like for Similarity

We use like + noun to describe similarity.

Examples:

1. What does it taste like? → It tastes like chocolate.
2. Who does she look like? → She looks like her sister.

7. What … like? with be

We also use What … like? with be to ask for descriptions.

Examples:

1. What’s the weather like?
2. What was the movie like?