8.18 Sense-Perception Verbs The sense-perception verbs are: hear, listen, feel, smell, see, watch, observe. After these verbs, we can use either the -ing form or the base form with a slight difference in meaning. EXAMPLES
EXPLANATION
I heard you talk about the Giving Pledge a few days ago. When the base form is used after a sense-perception Dan Pallotta saw many people around him die of AIDS. verb (saw, heard, etc.), it indicates completion. I heard you talking about a charity project. I saw some teenagers volunteering in the park last week.
Use the -ing form to show that something is sensed while it is in progress.
EXERCISE 32 Fill in the blanks with the base form or -ing form of the verb given. In some cases, both forms are possible. By their example, my parents always taught me to help others. One time when I was a child, on the way to a birthday party with my father, we saw a small boy street. As we approached him, we heard him
2. cry
walking
alone on the
1. walk
. My father went up to him and
asked him what was wrong. The boy said that he was lost. I saw my father hand and heard him
4. tell
3. take
his
the boy that he would help him find his parents. My father
called the police. Even though we were in a hurry to go to the party, my father insisted on staying with the boy until the police arrived. I really wanted to go to the party and started to cry. I felt my father my hand and talk to me softly. He said, “We can’t enjoy the party while this
5. take
little boy is alone and afraid.” Before the police arrived, I saw a woman
6. run
in our
direction. It was the boy’s mother. She was so grateful to my father for helping her son that she offered to give him money. I heard my father
7. tell
her, “I can’t take money from you. I’m
happy to be of help to your son.” I hear so many children today
8. say
, “I want” or “Buy me” or “Give me.” I think
it’s important to teach children to think of others before they think of themselves. If they see their parents
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9. help
others, they might grow up to be charitable people.
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