SEE - Basic Verbs - Learn English Grammar

hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome

to know your verbs in this episode we're going to talk about the verb see so

let's get started

so the basic definition of C is to perceive with your eyes so this really

means to use your eyes to get information you use your eyes to look at

things to maybe understand things to gain knowledge by looking at things by

using your eyes focusing your eyes on things you can learn things or gain

information gain knowledge so this is to perceive but the basic the basic

definition though is just to perceive with your eyes to use your eyes to

perceive to gain information to gain knowledge okay let's see the

conjugations for the verb C C C's saw seen seeing

let's talk about a few additional meanings of the verb see first one to

form a mental picture of to form a mental picture of means to use your mind

to create an image so see has the meaning of creating an image in your

mind for example I can see my childhood home clearly it was one story and had a

big yard what do you see when you close your eyes so in these example sentences

we're not actually using our eyes to see something in this use of the word see we

are imagining it and in our minds we are making a picture so we're not actually

using our eyes to see these items instead maybe there are things we saw in

the past and we are imagining them mentally we are creating a mental image

of something so when I say I can see my house clearly my childhood house it

means in my mind I can form a clear image of the house in my mind in the

question what do you see it means when you close your eyes

what's the mental image that appears in your mind so see is used to create

mental images to refer to creating mental images here next is to examine or

to watch so in this use of the verb see there's sort of the nuance of an

expectation we want to use our eyes to watch something as it changes or to

examine a change as it happens to examine a behavior let's see how the

team does in today's match I can't wait to see what the neighbors do when they

realize we bought a pool in the example of let's see how the team does in

today's match we are talking about using our eyes our actual eyes perhaps if we

are actually watching the match if we go to the game where we see the match on TV

perhaps we are using our eyes however if we don't go to the match and we read the

score from the game or we hear on the radio something about

the game or we hear the results of the game we can still use the verb si si has

this nuance of examining something so we're expecting some results so let's

see in this case doesn't only mean using your eyes to examine it can mean to

examine maybe the results of an hour are the results of something to examine the

outcome of something in the second example sentence let's see how the

neighbors react don't we see the same thing so it's the same it's the same

sort of nuance we are expecting a reaction we are going to watch for a

reaction from the neighbors when they realize we bought a pool so we want to

examine their reaction we want to examine an outcome we can use the verb

see though maybe we use our ears like if the neighbor says oh my gosh they bought

a pool that's sort of examining your you're waiting for a reaction there we

can still use the verb let's see the expression let's see to talk about that

so let's see what happens next for example next one to make sure to make

sure please see that this task is finished he saw that all the

arrangements had been made in these sentences the verb si is used to mean

make sure or to confirm something to ensure something in the first one please

see that this task is finished we could replace the verb see with make sure

please make sure that this task is finished

so that's a very clear sentence please see is just a shortened way of saying

make sure please see that this task is finished please ensure that this task is

finished we can replace the verb here the second example sentence is the same

he saw that all the arrangements had been made so he made sure that all the

arrangements had been made in these example sentences si is replacing the

expression make sure or ensure so we can use C to mean the same thing it's just a

shorter way of say make sure next to find acceptable or

attractive what do you see in him what do you see in her I don't understand

what you see in this restaurant it's terrible what are the qualities you

perceive in that person or the qualities that you can detect in that situation

what are the good points you identify there we can use the word see to sort of

communicate that quickly and easily so what do you see in him what do you see

in her is a much shorter way of saying what do you find attractive about him or

her what do you find appealing about him or her or what characteristics of that

person attract you to that person saying what do you see in him what do you see

in her is a much shorter way of saying what qualities do you find attractive in

that person the same thing in the restaurant example I don't understand

what you see in this restaurant means I don't understand what it is that you

like about this restaurant I think it's bad so instead we shorten it to I don't

understand what you see in this restaurant so see means finding

something attractive or interesting or appealing in some way

now let's talk about some variations so some slight changes or some additions to

the verb see that changed the meaning first is see-through see-through

see-through means to understand the true nature of something to understand the

real characteristics of something he saw through my attempts to work with him and

asked me on a date my boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking

sickness so here we see the use in the past tense in the first example sentence

he saw through my attempts to work with him meaning he saw the true nature of

what I was doing so he saw through my attempts to work with him and asked me

on a date so in the situation maybe the person the speaker was trying to spend

time with the he in this situation and was asking maybe to work together a lot

but he in the situation saw through saw to the true nature of the speaker's

request saw the true characteristics or the actual desire there and asked the

speaker on a date so in this sentence we understand that there was a different

motivation so something below the surface of the of the initial action

that was happening so the the other person in the situation understood the

other motivation the motivation below the surface motivation and so we use saw

through or see through to communicate that so I he saw through my attempts to

work with him and he understood there was something else I wanted to do in the

second example sentence my boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking

sickness so again we see in past tense my boss saw through my lie so saw that I

was lying in other words saw through my lie so saw the true character of my lie

saw the true nature of my statement and scolded me so my boss understood I lied

and scolded me for faking sickness so I got in trouble

as I was faking an illness faking sickness my boss saw through my behavior

saw the true character understood the true nature of my of my statement next

is see eye to eye see eye to eye this means to have a common viewpoint or to

agree we don't see eye to eye most of the time I'm glad we see eye to eye

about this so maybe this one is an easy one to visualize so to see eye to eye

with someone else means you agree with them you share a viewpoint with them so

you can kind of imagine maybe two people standing across from one another and if

they see eye to eye maybe they match their line of sight

matches much in the way that their viewpoints or their opinions match

exactly exactly so they have kind of the same viewpoint they can see eye to eye

so they're there their eyesight maybe matches their opinions match so to see

eye to eye and we can say I'm glad we see eye to eye about this meaning I'm

happy we agree about this or in a negative we don't see eye to eye most of

the time means we don't agree most of the time or we have different opinions

most of the time all right so I hope that this video helped you level up your

knowledge of the verb see a little bit if you have any questions or comments or

if you know another way of using the verb see let us know in the comments

section below the video thanks very much for watching please make sure to like

the video subscribe to the channel and check us out at English class 101.com

for more good stuff thanks for watching this episode of know your verbs and

we'll see you again soon bye bye we'll see you again soon we end every

video on this channel almost with see you again soon but of course I don't

actually see you you see me we imagine you we have we form mental images in our

minds of all of you watching in the camera there all those hundreds of

thousands of you guys that's kind of terrifying see that was fun

you