Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hello, teachers!

Can you take a look at the sentences A-D below?

A Last night I saw a movie at the theater.
B Last night I watched a movie at the theater.

I think A is more commonly used than B. I don't know why, but "see" seems to be prefered to "watch" when the object is "a movie" or "movies".

In the pair below,however, D isn't correct because you normaly don't make a progressive form of "see". Therefore, you have to use the word "watch" instead like in C , even though you don't normaly say "watch a movie at the theater"

C There was an earthquake when I was watching a movie at the theater.
D There was an earthquake when I was seeing a movie.

Do you think my understanding is correct?

Thanks!

Yoshi-pooh,

[Anuradha Chepur]

You are right. Verbs of perception, like see, hear, smell, etc., are not used in the progressive form.

"Watched a movie" is not really incorrect, but it is only that "saw a movie" is more common in use.

[Jintii]

I think it's "at the theater" that makes the difference in verb choice, not the fact that it's a movie.

"See" gives the impression that you've gone out to the movie. For instance, I would watch a movie on DVD or on TV at home, but I would go to see it in a theater.

The same goes for other events:

You watch a football game on TV, but you see it in the stadium.
You watch your favorite rock star's video, but you see him/her live in concert.