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Glow and glowing are different forms of a verb, but does the tense make any difference? Which one of these (in each pair) is correct and why?

  1. "I saw you dancing" or "I saw you dance".
  2. "I will watch you cook" or "I will watch you cooking".
  3. "I am watching you sing" or "I am watching you singing".
Martin F
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roopa
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    They're all valid. I can't think of a context where it makes any difference. – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '14 at 05:32
  • @FumbleFingers: Maybe not a duplicate, as this Q has three different tenses ("glowing" has only one). While that may not have been the thrust of the Q, my answer does address the implications of tense. – Martin F Mar 01 '14 at 07:00
  • My question, though, is should this be moved to ELL? I don't mean kicked angrily, but migrated gracefully. ;-) – Martin F Mar 01 '14 at 07:09
  • @martin: Those "three different tenses" are irrelevant to the question, which concerns the possible difference between using the -ing (continuous) form and the simple (unmarked infinitive) form (i.e. - dancing or dance). That's the same whatever the tense of the main verb (to dance). – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '14 at 13:02
  • @FumbleFingers - Nevertheless, there they are, and how do you know they are irrelevant? – Martin F Apr 07 '14 at 03:21

1 Answers1

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They are all correct or valid. The difference in meaning, if any, is very subtle indeed.

To me, the dancing, cooking and singing cases -- if they were all in the past tense (and I realize they are not, but bear with me) -- are suggestive of a shorter period of time, as if I did not witness the entire event. The dance, cook and sing cases -- again, if they were all in the past -- are suggestive of a longer period of time, as if I witnessed most of the event.

If they are in the present or future tenses ("I am..." or "I will..."), then the dance, cook and sing cases just sound better to me.

Martin F
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