That smells delicious: The present simple at the restaurant

26.03.2009

A present simple restaurant in Times Square, New York

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They don't agree on food culture, but they speak to the same crowd: Jamie Oliver says "It's smelling delicious" and McDonald's use "I'm lovin' it" in their advertisements. Never mind their slang. The basic rule is still to say "It smells delicious" and "I love it." Why is the "incorrect" phrase so popular in youth culture? Well, it's all about enjoying the moment, as Justin Timberlake did back in 2003:

Slang is right for a certain place and group, but it can really bother speakers of standard English. Read one man's complaint: "Now, I might just be getting old and grumpy before my time, but this is really starting to annoy me. Am I the only one still saying 'I like', 'I think', 'I love' and 'I need'?" He's definitely not alone. State verbs, used to describe your mental or emotional state, and sensory verbs, used to say what you can perceive, as well as a whole range of other verbs are non-progressive. You probably use them all the time — for example, when you and a colleague go out for lunch. Check how well you know which verbs are used in the present simple in our exercise on the next page.

Anne Hodgson

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COMMENTS

Submitted by Mike Pilewski on Thu, 26/03/2009 - 12:04.

I'm glad somebody's finally called out McDonald's on their slogan. What bothers me about it isn't that it's nonstandard English, because it is at least correct Ebonics. Unlike English, Ebonics uses the -ing form of the verb to describe temporary states of being or emotion. No, what bothers me is that the German translation Ich liebe es completely misses the point. To be faithful to the temporal sense of the original Ebonics, one would have to say something like Ich bin in Ekstase, Das tut (so) gut or simply Zum Genießen.
Jamie Oliver, however, has no excuse.