The meanings of present participle/infinitive
Dear Dr English,
Could you tell me how different these sentences are?
ÒI saw him crossing the street.Ó
ÒI saw him cross the street.Ó
Is it the way I saw him thatÕs different?
Or, is the way I want to communicate the fact that I saw him different?
Sho Naruse
This structure mostly deals with the three verbs; watch, see and hear. If they are followed with V+ing, the subject watches, sees or hears while it is still going on. When they are followed with the infinitive without ÔtoÕ, the subject watches, sees or hears a complete action.
The first sentence tells us that you saw the person actually doing the action; which in this case is crossing the street. But the second sentence shows that you saw the person still on this side of the road (before he started crossing the road). Compare the following sentences:
The teacher opened the door and saw the students playing computer games instead of doing their assignment.
This sentence means that the students were playing computer games when the teacher entered the room.
The teacher opened the door and saw the students play computer games instead of doing their assignment.
The second sentence tells us that the teacher saw his students sit down at the computer desk getting ready to play computer games.
I hope this clears up your problem.
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Withdrawal syndrome
Dear Dr English,
If someone said to me ÒI am having ...(my name) withdrawal syndromesÓ, what did he mean? Should I be glad to hear it? I hope it has a positive meaning.
Thank you & Best regards,
Jaruwan Tanrattanawong
ÒWithdrawal symptomsÓ or Òwithdrawal syndromesÓ usually refers to the unpleasant feeling that people have when they stop smoking or taking a drug to which they are addicted. But in the context of your question, it implies that the speaker feels unhappy because he is missing somebody; in this case, you. He was saying that he is suffering because you are not around. Of course, it is a compliment from a man who is in love!
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