look see watch
Hi, in today’s lesson we are looking at the verbs, look, see and watch. How to use
them and the differences between them. OK, so first the verb "look."
We use look when we direct our eyes at something or someone and pay attention to it:
Look at the rabbit! Over there, in the grass. You direct your attention over there. You
pay attention to the rabbit.
Remember with look if it has an object it is followed by AT.
Now for the verb see
See means noticing something using our eyes.
So for instance, I saw Diya at the shops yesterday. Here we have the past simple form of see which
is "saw." So we noticed Diya at the shops.
Or
Has anyone seen my glasses? Here we have the present perfect tense so we have the past
participle of of "to see" which is seen. Has anyone noticed my glasses.
Lastly, lets look at the verb watch.
Watch is similar to look at, but it usually means that we look at something for a period
of time and pay attention to what is happening, especially something that is changing or moving.
For example:
We watch television every evening.
But be careful as we use watch for the television: But see, and not watch, when we talk about
being at sports matches or public performances, such as films, theatre and dramas.
So you would say: "I watched ‘The Crown’ last night on DVD." You were at home and watched
it on the TV. So we use watch.
Whereas if you say: "I saw “The Crown” last night at the cinema."
You were at a theatre or cinema and not watching it on TV.
And When we look at something for a long time, we use watch, not see.
So if we say:
We watched whales jumping out of the water. Watch focuses on the process of seeing. This
implies that you spent time looking at the whales.
Whereas
We saw whales jumping out of the water. See focuses more on the finished event. It doesn’t
suggest that we spent much time looking at the whales.
OK so now let’s look at some sentences using see, look, and watch:
Janet looks towards the window because she wants to know if it is morning yet. Here
he directs her attention towards the window so we use LOOK.
Compared to
Janet sees the sun coming in through the window and knows it is morning. This means she
notices the sunlight with her eyes.
And
Janet watches the sun come up in the morning. Here Janet pays attention to the rising sun
for a period of time.
Let’s look at another example:
Dave sees that the game is on TV but he does not watch it with his brother. This means
that Dave notices the game on TV but he does not sit down and pay attention to it for a
period of time.
And finally this sentence.
Look up there! Do you see that airplane? Here we direct our attention upwards so we use
LOOK but then we switch and use SEE because we ask if you notice the airplane?
OK, so now it’s your turn.
Can you spot the error in these sentences?
If you go for a walk by the river, you can look the beautiful scenery.
LOOK AT the beautiful scenery
The reason is that when there is an object, we use AT after look.
If you go to the forest, you might watch some deer.
It should be SEE not watch
We don’t use watch to talk about things that we see without trying. We are saying
you might notice some deer.
We’re going to the cinema tonight.
What are you going to watch?
This is incorrect it should be SEE not watch as we don’t use watch when referring to
a film in the cinema:
At night, I like to see the television.
Here it should be WATCH not see as we use watch, not see, when we refer to something
on the television:
OK so That’s it for now, I hope you now feel confident on when to use the verbs, look,
see and watch. Remember to like this video if you found it useful and share it with our
family and friends learning English. Also please subscribe to my channel so as not to
miss any new English language videos by clicking the button down below.
Thanks for watching and see you very soon.
look see watch