英文文法: “saw sb do sth” 和”saw sb doing sth” 分别
Source: Zihu
(prepared by: alexcwlin; edited by: Adam Lam)

Question:

我们老师叫给我们的是see sb do sth还有一个事see sb doing sth

alexcwlin comments:

Let’s discuss the two phrases in practical terms: “I saw her cook dinner” versus “I saw her cooking dinner”.

1.      Meaning

a.      “I saw her cook dinner” means I witnessed the entire “cook” process from beginning to end.

b.      In “I saw her cooking dinner”, as I “saw”, she was “cooking” dinner, and the “cooking” process was not completely finished during the “saw” action.

2.      Grammar Analysis

a.      In “I saw her cook dinner”, “saw her cook” is a Bare Infinitive, i.e., an Infinitive without the marker “to”.

What I mean is the sentence could have been written as “I saw her to cook dinner” with “to cook” as the Adjectival Infinitive Phrase modifying the Object “her”. However, in some cases, the marker “to” is dropped following some Verbs, and one of them is “saw”.

b.      In “I saw her cooking dinner”, “cooking dinner” is Present Participle Adjectival Phrase giving more information about the Object “her”.

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