AbstractThe study investigates the stance marker believe in the progressive aspect, challenging the viewestablished in the ESL community that state verbs are used exclusively in the simple aspect and an overall neglect of thepragmatic meaning associated with different structural forms. The study shows that a corpus-based analysis of naturally occurringdata proves the opposite: While the simple aspect remains the prevalent use, believe in progressive displaysimportant pragmatic functions, indicative of immediacy, expression of agency, and intensity. The paper discusses the identifiedpragmatic functions and relates them to the communicative goals of the registers they are attested in, such as blogs and newsreports. News broadcasts, for example, feature interview sources offering their subjective take; in opinion blogs, writers shareexperience offering evaluation. Speaker agency is thus a crucial component of influencing public opinion or the construction ofthe online persona. The study has implications for teaching, suggesting that students need exposure to and a thoroughunderstanding of this authentic use.