# I'm loving it



## mmarmi

no es verdad que "love" es un "state verb" que no aparece en forma continua?me podriais explicar entonces porque se usa asi en el slogan de esta cadena de restaurantes.muchisimas gracias


----------



## elmohdez

LOVE
II_verbo transitivo_ 
*1* _(persona)_ querer a, amar a 
*2* _(cosa, actividad)_ *I love skiing,* me encanta esquiar


----------



## turi

"I'm loving it" viene a decir "lo estoy disfrutando".  "loving " en gerundio viene a decir eso, queriendo, amando, disfrutando, dependiendo del contexto.

Creo que el mohdez te lo explica mejor y más sucintamente.

Saludos, t.


----------



## Tarahumara

Hola Mmarmi, 
*Mc Donald's I'm loving it=* *Mc Donald's, Lo estoy disfrutando/ lo disfruto mucho, estoy agusto.* Se puede interpretar en diferentes formas segun el uso de la frase dentro del contexto de la oración o párrafo en que se ponga.
Tarahumara


----------



## mmarmi

muchas gracias a todos pero mi problema está en el uso de "love" en forma continua,es decir "am loving" porque en teoría no se debe utilizar y pensé que se me escapaba algo.


----------



## SydLexia

If you say "I love her new book" you mean you have read it and you like it. If you say "I'm loving her new book" you mean you are in the process of reading it and "te está gustando".

In the case of the hamburgers, the 'ing' makes it more of a continuous process/state.

syd


----------



## stretch

El eslogan en la publicidad de McDonald's en español viene siendo "me encanta". Concuerdo con la respuesta de Turissa, que significa "lo estoy disfrutando". También recuerda que a veces verbos en el presente en español se pueden expresar con el gerundio en inglés: "¿qué haces" = "what are you doing?" o "me encanta" = "I'm loving it."



mmarmi said:


> muchas gracias a todos pero mi problema está en el uso de "love" en forma continua,es decir "am loving" porque en teoría no se debe utilizar y pensé que se me escapaba algo.


 
No sé quién te dijo que no se puede usar así.  Es correcto usarlo así.


----------



## Masood

_En términos generales_ en cuanto a los verbos de emoción o de los sentidos, no se suele conjugarlos en la forma del gerundio.

Ejemplos:

I love it.
I'm loving it.  (aunque es el eslogan de una cadena de comida rápida).

I can hear a noise/I hear a noise.
I am hearing a noise.

I/can see a man in the house.
I am seeing a man in the house.

Espero que sea de ayuda.

Cheers


----------



## josera--

Existen los llamados "mixed verbs", que a veces son verbos de acción y otras veces verbos de estado, según el significado. To love, con el significado de "amar", sería un "state verb", pero con el significado de "disfrutar" es un "action verb".
Saludos.


----------



## SydLexia

I agree with josera that these verbs can be used in two ways.

I'm so happy I decided to move to Wolverhampton. I'm loving it here.
I think there might be a problem with the wheel bearings. I've been hearing a strange noise recently.
He's been seeing a psychiatrist for four months.

syd


----------



## josera--

SydLexia said:


> He's been *seeing* a psychiatrist for four months.
> syd


 
Perfect! In this case, "to see"="to visit"; not "to see with your eyes".
Regards.


----------



## alacant

Masood said:


> _En términos generales_ en cuanto a los verbos de emoción o de los sentidos, no se suele conjugarlos en la forma del gerundio.
> 
> Ejemplos:
> 
> I love it.
> I'm loving it.  (aunque es el eslogan de una cadena de comida rápida).
> 
> I can hear a noise/I hear a noise.
> I am hearing a noise.
> 
> I/can see a man in the house.
> I am seeing a man in the house.


In total agreement with you, Masood.

This has been discussed before, and the phrase is in general usage, however that doesn't make it correct.

Saludos, fly high, ala

Espero que sea de ayuda.

Cheers


----------



## Forero

I agree with josera-- and SydLexia.  There is nothing grammatically wrong with "I am hearing a noise", etc.  "I am seeing a man ..." is a special case though, since "seeing" is not literal.  "I am seeing", like "I am hearing", can also be used in the literal sense: "I am seeing streaks on my windshield, and I would like to determine the cause."

"I'm lovin' it" is purposefully abstruse to draw people's attention.  Nevertheless, depending on what _it_ is supposed to be, it can be a grammatical sentence.

It means something like "Me estoy gozando de ello", and it can also be used as an idiom meaning something like "Ya estoy feliz" or "¡Qué la vida es alegre!".


----------



## stretch

Forero is right.  To use this construction is completely grammatical and correct.


----------



## k-in-sc

The slogan was chosen to sound a little different on purpose, to be more memorable. "I'm lovin' it" is perfectly grammatical, as we all agree, but also not the most common usage.


----------



## chifladoporlosidiomas

to "love" in English is an idiom anyways.


----------



## k-in-sc

chifladoporlosidiomas said:


> to "love" in English is an idiom anyways.



Um, what ... ?


----------



## Meyer Wolfsheim

He means to say that we use the verb "to love" as a hyperbole which we do.


----------



## chifladoporlosidiomas

^yeah. hyperbole
'cause if you translate it directly from English to Spanish, it be amar/querer, which would be a little awkward


----------



## FromPA

The phrase "I am loving it" is a slang/colloquial phrase of recent vintage.  You never would have heard this phrase 30 years ago.  McDonalds used the phrase in its advertising because it was a phrase being used by young people at the time.


----------



## zetem

I think the phrase "I'm lovin' it" is a message to young and uneducated people to say that junk grammar and junk food go nicely together and it does not matter how they speak as long as they can pay their bills.


----------



## gengo

I sort of agree with everybody here.  

Strictly speaking, it is not very good grammar, for the reasons stated.  However, the slogan was chosen not for its grammar, but for its memorability and for how well the target audience relates to it.  In that sense, it is perfect.  This use of "I'm xxxing it" is urban slang of relatively recent vintage (the past few decades).  As a boy I heard people say "I'm diggin' it."


----------



## Forero

I have to disagree with those who say "I am loving it" is bad grammar or would not have been said 50 years ago. There is nothing wrong or slangy about "I'm loving" in posts 6 and 10.

The advertising slogan is abstruse because it is totally unclear to what the pronoun _it_ refers and how that relates to a fast food chain. I would have the same problem with:

_I'm lovin' it.
I'm enjoying it.
I'm having fun with it.
_
"I'm loving McDonald's" is not bad grammar, but it would be a most unusual thing to say without some background information. So, in the McDonald's slogan, what is "it"?

It is apparently supposed to mean whatever it does in a particular song or else something like "I'm loving the wonderful atmosphere here at McDonald's", which would be fine except that atmosphere is not mentioned in the context where "I'm lovin' it" is used. And although people in Europe pay "value added" tax for such "atmosphere", it is not what most of us think of when we think "McDonald's".


----------



## gengo

Forero said:


> I have to disagree with those who say "I am loving it" is bad grammar or would not have been said 50 years ago.



I suppose it depends on how you define bad grammar.  If you define it as something that is contrary to what most grammar books say, then it is unquestionably bad grammar.  Just as saying "If he was a millionaire, he would still end up broke" is bad grammar.

However, if you define good grammar as whatever the common native speakers use, then it is certainly good grammar.

As for 50 years ago, that is harder to prove either way, but I don't think many people would have used this form.  They would have said "I love it," since the verb to love is considered a verb of state.  At least, it wouldn't have been used by a major corporation as its slogan.

This thread reminds me of another advertising vs. grammar debate.  Back in the 1960's, a cigarette company had a jingle that went, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should."  Grammarians howled that this was bad grammar, that Winston was not tasting anything and therefore couldn't "taste good."  Winston shot back with a new commercial jingle that went, "What do you want, good grammar or good taste?"  I still remember when cigarette commercials were on TV in the US!


----------



## SydLexia

I think "I'm loving every minute of it" has been used for quite a time in the UK, although it is difficult to prove.

syd


----------



## elianecanspeak

gengo said:


> This thread reminds me of another advertising vs. grammar debate.  Back in the 1960's, a cigarette company had a jingle that went, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should."  Grammarians howled that this was bad grammar, that Winston was not tasting anything and therefore couldn't "taste good."  Winston shot back with a new commercial jingle that went, "What do you want, good grammar or good taste?"  I still remember when cigarette commercials were on TV in the US!



As I remember the controversy overt this commercial, the objection was to the use of "like", rather than "as": 

"Winston tastes good like *as* a cigarette should" was what the grammarians wanted to hear.


----------



## Forero

gengo said:


> If you define it as something that is contrary to what most grammar books say, then it is unquestionably bad grammar.
> ...
> However, if you define good grammar as whatever the common native speakers use, then it is certainly good grammar.
> 
> As for 50 years ago, that is harder to prove either way, but I don't think many people would have used this form.  They would have said "I love it," since the verb to love is considered a verb of state.


One thing I think you are missing is that _love_ is not always purely a verb of state. In fact, even its more stative meanings such as "cherish" and "hold dear" can be taken as active when the cherishing or holding dear has a beginning or an end.

But more applicable in our case is the fact that _loving_ when it means "enjoying", "actively taking pleasure in", or "thriving in" is more flexible, in terms of grammatical aspect.

There is nothing wrong with saying "I'm enjoying it", so neither is "I'm loving it" wrong when "loving" means "enjoying". And there is nothing wrong with saying "my roses are loving their new place by the window" when it means "my roses are thriving in their new place by the window."


----------



## gengo

elianecanspeak said:


> As I remember the controversy overt this commercial, the objection was to the use of "like", rather than "as":
> 
> "Winston tastes good like *as* a cigarette should" was what the grammarians wanted to hear.



Now that you mention it, yes, that's exactly right.  I _thought_ I was missing something.  Thanks.  But my basic point is still valid.

And let me make clear that I personally have nothing against the use of "loving it," and am only saying that traditionally that has been considered incorrect usage by most grammar authorities.  That it is in use by natives is without doubt.


----------



## Forero

gengo said:


> Now that you mention it, yes, that's exactly right. I _thought_ I was missing something. Thanks. But my basic point is still valid.
> 
> And let me make clear that I personally have nothing against the use of "loving it," and am only saying that traditionally that has been considered incorrect usage by most grammar authorities. That it is in use by natives is without doubt.


I insist that "I am loving it", as used in posts 6 and 10, is a perfectly acceptable sentence and has been for centuries in both formal and informal English, spoken and written, except perhaps on a test of English as a foreign language.

I don't know what grammar authorities you are talking about, but nothing prohibiting _be_ + _-ing_ constructions with certain verbs appears in the grammar books I grew up with (1950s through early 1970s). I think this "tradition" must have come into vogue sometime in the last thirty years or so. It was apparently designed to help non-native speakers to create more natural-sounding sentences.

The distinction between present simple and present progressive or continuous is in the meaning of each verb in context, something native English speakers know implicitly. We natives can trust our instincts on this. We know when to say "I am hearing you" and when to say "I hear you", when to say "I have trouble" and when to say "I'm having trouble". We don't often say "This has been mattering for some time now", but we know when to use such a sentence if the need should ever arise.

The use of "I'm lovin' it" by McDonalds does seem out of place to most native English speakers, but I believe the problem is with the dangling pronoun in context and not with the syntax.


----------



## gengo

Forero said:


> I don't know what grammar authorities you are talking about, but nothing prohibiting _be_ + _-ing_ constructions with certain verbs appears in the grammar books I grew up with.



Here is a typical example:



The present continuous is  usually used with doing verbs (verbs of action), not with verbs of state.  The following verbs are not used in the continuous form:-
_Conditions: belong, cost, need,  own, seem
Feelings: like, love, hate, want, wish
Beliefs:  believe, feel, know, mean, remember, think, understand_​You will note the use of "usually" above, which implies that there are exceptions, and I don't think anyone would dispute that.  But the basic rule is that such verbs are not used in the present continuous.  You can easily search grammar sources online for yourself.



> The use of "I'm lovin' it" by McDonalds does seem out of place to most native English speakers, but I believe the problem is with the dangling pronoun in context and not with the syntax.



It is interesting that you think so, because to me there is nothing at all odd about the "it" in that context, which obviously (to me) refers to the act of eating at McDonald's.


----------



## elianecanspeak

Forero said:


> I insist that "I am loving it", as used in posts 6 and 10, is a perfectly acceptable sentence and has been for centuries in both formal and informal English, spoken and written, except perhaps on a test of English as a foreign language.



Before the late 70s-early 80s I never heard I'm loving it" type constructions *except in Black (and maybe some dialects of Southern American)  English: eg Otis Redding's "I been lovin' you so long"*.  Standard usage would have been "_*I have loved you so long".*_  It was used in those dialects both in the sense of "love" (carnal or agape) and "enjoyment",

On the other hand, "I am enjoying . . ." was in standard usage.

My feeling is that this is a construction borrowed from non-standard dialects that has been gradually incorporated into standard American English.

I can also hear it in my head as Indian (sub-continental).


----------



## stretch

elianecanspeak said:


> Before the late 70s-early 80s I never heard I'm loving it" type constructions *except in Black (and maybe some dialects of Southern American)  English: eg Otis Redding's "I been lovin' you so long"*.  Standard usage would have been "_*I have loved you so long".*_  It was used in those dialects both in the sense of "love" (carnal or agape) and "enjoyment",
> 
> On the other hand, "I am enjoying . . ." was in standard usage.
> 
> My feeling is that this is a construction borrowed from non-standard dialects that has been gradually incorporated into standard American English.
> 
> I can also hear it in my head as Indian (sub-continental).



"I'll be loving you always" was written in 1925 by Irving Berlin.


----------



## zetem

Verbs of emotions (like, love, hate, etc.) belong to a group od "stative" verbs, which by definition, have no duration, and are often called non-progressive. These verbs are normally not used in progressive tenses (*I am liking what you said), although I have heard this and similar usage for all kinds of verbs from Indian and Pakistani immigrants in Canada. They seem to like progressive verb forms and overuse them for almost all verbs they know. I hope this is not over-exaggeration. These are also static verbs, as they are many others, but many static verbs can be progressive, however their meaning may change when they are use in progressive tenses. For example; "I am Canadian" (normal static use). "I am being Canadian" may mean that I am Canadian for the time being (I am not Canadian but, for now, I pretends to be). The other possible reason for the use of static verbs in progressive forms is an attempt to make them dynamic, and thus rhetorically stronger, an attempt to show that one has stronger emotion and commitment to a certain cause than those who a just "static". Maybe, in their minds, "I am being Canadian" means exactly that.It is possible that the slogan "I'm lovin' it" comes from similar reasoning. I don't know, and very likely neither do they.


----------



## k-in-sc

Sorry, but I don't think "I'm lovin' it" is at all comparable to "I'm being Canadian."


----------



## keox

Well, I think that whatever it means , they have achieved their goal. We are talking about it, right?


----------



## k-in-sc

We are discussing the grammar of the slogan. I bet Mickey D's never expected it to be scrutinized so intensely.


----------



## elianecanspeak

stretch said:


> "I'll be loving you always" was written in 1925 by Irving Berlin.



Hmmm . . . weren't his first languages Yiddish, Hebrew (his father was a cantor) and maybe Russian?


----------



## Forero

In the 1950s, we knew this was foreign-sounding:

Boris, the Russian wolfhound: _Ah, but some day he is meeting someone different, some delicate fragile creature who is giving him a wish to shelter and protect.... But when he does ... the Cossacks are picking him up .... _(from Walt Disney's _Lady and the Tramp_)

But no one said  "I'll be loving you- always" was anything but American. Like "White Christmas" and "Easter Bonnet", it had no hint of Yiddishisms, Russianisms, or what-have-you-isms. Of course Berlin's Yiddish songs sounded Yiddish, but not these American "old standards".

Frank Sinatra never sang it as "I'll love you- always". That simply did/does not mean the same thing - in standard (1950s) American English.

The 1938 song that goes "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places ... I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you" is natural American English. "I'll see you ... but I'll see you" would not have conveyed the same meaning.

The supposed "grammar rule" about never using verbs like _see_, _hear_, or _love_ in continuous tenses is the innovation here, not the usage in question.


----------



## elianecanspeak

Forero said:


> But no one said  "*I'll be loving you*- always" was anything but American. Like "White Christmas" and "Easter Bonnet", it had no hint of Yiddishisms, Russianisms, or what-have-you-isms. Of course Berlin's Yiddish songs sounded Yiddish, but not these American "old standards". , , ,
> 
> The 1938 song that goes "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places ... I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you" is natural American English.


You are right, of course -- his English  was impeccable and always fit the situation, and I was joking about the Yiddish. 

But I wonder about the difference between the lovely examples you supply and the original phrase "I'm loving it" in terms of the tense; they sound appropriately American in the future tense, but do you think "I'm seeing you" in the present tense works as well?

PS : Thanks for the Lady and the Tramp dialogue --


----------



## pcplus

Yo lo traduciría como: "Le estoy cogiendo/agarrando el gusto".


----------



## k-in-sc

pcplus said:


> Yo lo traduciría como: "Le estoy cogiendo/agarrando el gusto".


That's not the meaning.


----------



## Sergiotcj

So, could you say "I'm liking it"?


----------



## Forero

Sergiotcj said:


> So, could you say "I'm liking it"?


Certainly, with the meaning "me está gustando".


----------



## JennyTW

Totally agree with FromPA. It's a recent usage that has become accepted. But does that make it grammatically correct? Depends if you like your grammar prescriptive or descriptive! Or should that be .."if you're liking"?!!


----------



## JennyTW

Sorry, didn't realise this thread had 3 pages. Mine was in answer to what I thought was the last thread at the end of page 1!


----------



## zetem

I'm liking it; I'm loving it

Of course you can say this if you wish, but you better know who you are talking to. These phrases have been invented by fast food companies whose concern is not the grammar but catching attention of their targeted customers, who in most cases do not care about the grammar anyway. So if you want to sound as a TV commercial, use them. I think the English language learner needs first to learn the language that is proper and acceptable among the educated people, and then he can screw up his language any way he "*is liking*" if he "*is wanting*".


----------

