Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi

Could anyone tell me:
What's the difference between
SEE /LOOK AT/WATCH?

thank You!

"Seeing" is a passive action - you do it as long as you are awake and your eyes are open.
"Look at" involves an intention to direct your attention at whatever is being looked at.
"watch" involves prolonged observation.
"glance" which you didn't mention involves looking only as long as is needed to get information that you need such as the time, or whether or not it is safe to overtake.
So much for the eyes.

For your ears, note also that "hear" is a passive action and "listen" involves an intention to direct your attention.

Any comments on my postings on transformations or my Venn diagram of the English catenatives?

Andrew Patterson.
http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/catenative.GIF

I would suggest some further disctinctions to add to Andrew's nicely put definitons :

"See" and "watch" are used almost identically in a sentence with noun groups immediately following:

"I saw a burgler."
"I watched a burgler."

The only difference between these two sentences in the amount of time spent (watching = longer) and that "I saw" sounds like the subject put way less effort into "seeing" the burgler than the subject "watching" it.

Also note that "to look" in this sense is almost always followed by a preposition then a noun group:

"He looked at ..."
"He looked through the window"
"He looked outside"
"He looked around"
"He looked into the crystal ball"

Whereas verbs such as "to see/ to watch" are usually immediately followed by a noun group with a possible preposition afterwards:

"He watched the soccer match on television"
"He saw my neighbour through his window"
"She saw her teddy bear beside her bed"
"I watched the robbers from the roof."

So "watch"/"see" can follow this structure with an optional prepositional group followed by a noun group : Subject-Verb-Object-(Prep - Noun)
"Look" on the other hand follows Subject-Verb-Prep-Object

Scared to hear how unclear that's gonna sound.
wjserson

Scared to hear how unclear that's gonna sound.
wjserson[/quote]

Hey, don't say that, I like your answer!

Thanks wjserson for mentioning "look" is usually followed by a preposition, I think that's important.

Going back to my post, I forgot to mention "glimse" which means catch sight of a (usually moving or transitory) object before it disappears.

Don't use the word "transitory" with yours students, though.

I liked your answer too, wjserson, as well as Andy's.

But I'm going to take a small issue with you here:

"See" and "watch" are used almost identically in a sentence with noun groups immediately following:

"I saw a burgler."
"I watched a burgler."

The only difference between these two sentences in the amount of time spent (watching = longer) and that "I saw" sounds like the subject put way less effort into "seeing" the burgler than the subject "watching" it.

You are suggesting that there's only a small difference between them, but the difference you have described seems like quite a substantial one to me. Seeing a burgler, and watching a burgler are, I propose, quite different. Wouldn't you agree?

Larry Latham

Hi! I agree with the last post. You can't see TV, you watch it. So definitely there's a difference between 'see' and 'watch'. The verbs mentioned in the title seemed to me quite obvious at first glance but, having read the posts, I started thinking about the distinction. Sometimes easy things turn out to be a bit difficult. Maybe,since they are easy,we tend to neglect them.
Greetings,
Maciek

I guess some clarification could be in order, Larry:

I would agree, Larry

Syntaxically, the two verbs can function in the same space of the same sentence. They both function as verbs that require some sort of object to be seen or watched. So one could say that they fit in the exact same 'slot' of a reasonably simple sentence.

Semantically, they both have certain identical factors: we're talking about viewing something here. The only semantic different, perhaps the only difference at all (other than the fact that they sound different and are written differently), is that with 'to see' the object is viewed for quite a short period of time, with the other verb 'watch' for longer with a larger effort put into viewing the object. It's a required distinction to make in teaching or even speaking English, so therefore a fairly important one Larry.

I don't believe I made a claim that the difference was simple or unimportant. It certainly is 'important' to inform the student that the two are not synonyms of each other or else examples like "Last night, I saw the Oscars" would become more common among your students. I did point out that there were very few differences between the two. It's up to the reader to decide how important that difference is to them, not for me to state.

I, personally, find comparing these two verbs relatively easy compared to structures and verbs with much more specific meanings that become much more complicated ("staring vigorously” “peaked curiously”). Once we get into much more complicated structures at a higher level of class we begin to see larger semantic differences that could become harder to explain for the teacher.

I was trying to state that there was really only one or two distinctions to make between 'see' and 'watch', not claim that these distinctions weren't "substantial"

I misread your intent, then, in your first post. There's nothing in the last for me to disagree with, wjserson.

Larry Latham

'watch' normally implies that you are looking at something iin anticipation of it changing.

You watch your car in case it gets stolen, or scratched. If you are watching TV there are pictures on the screen that keep changing.

We have 'see' and 'glimpse' which are involuntary.
And 'look at', 'glance at' and 'watch' that are deliberate actions.

"See" also connotes understanding.

Hi. I've written an exercise on this, which might help your studes see the difference. It's here:- http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/gr.see.p.htm

Last week my Spanish EFL students were asking me why "durante" doesn't always come out as "during". I found that giving them lots of examples and getting them to think about it worked well. I'll have to write them an exercise too, of course.

Cheers