Basic English – How and when to use LOOK, SEE, and WATCH

Hi. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're going to be looking at the verb...

Well, three verbs:

"to look", "to see", and "to watch",

which all involve using your eyes, but they are

used in different ways and different contexts.

So, it's quite complicated, really, but we're

going to look at some examples, and I'll try to explain why you choose "look" in certain

cases, "watch" in other cases, and "see" in other cases. Sometimes there's a choice, but

both or all three would work; other times, it has to be one particular one for it to

sound right in English. Okay.

So, let's have a look at "look" to begin with. "Look" is quite an active verb, because to

look, you have to deliberately decide to use your eyes and move... Move your head around,

and look to see, look to "see" what's there. So, we'll do "see" in a minute, but you're

looking in a deliberate, active way, because you want to, maybe you want to find something.

So, if you're looking for something, if you start to use prepositions with it:

"I'm looking for my book", for example.

Where is my book? I'm looking for it. I can't see it at the moment.

I'm looking for it. Or you can be "looking at" something. If it's there and

you're seeing it... A picture on the wall:

"Looking at the picture", and it's a deliberate

looking at the details, taking in the colours, the shapes, everything in the picture, so

it's quite an active process. Okay.

With "watch", it's similar because it's quite an active thing again, you're watching something.

But with "watch", it's often used when you're watching things which might be moving, either

on a film or on television, a sports match, either you're there at the sports field or

you watching sport on television. Or people, if you're sitting outside a café having

a coffee and you're watching people going by,

or you're watching some animals in the zoo, what they're doing in their cage.

It tends to be with things that are moving. So

you're watching because there's a constant change happening. You're watching and it's

holding your interest because it's developing, either a film, a TV program.

You're watching the news, the details keep changing, the picture keeps changing; people moving around, animals.

It's a kind of watching something in a process, a process is happening. Okay.

With "see", it's a little bit different. I've already used the word.

It's a little bit more passive in some ways, because it's like you're receiving the image

through your eyes; you're not deliberately looking for something.

If I'm not looking for my book, but I just happen

to look over that side of the room, and:

"Oh, I see my book." I just happen to see my book;

I'm not looking for it, but there it is. I see it. The image comes through my eye, down

my optic nerve, into my brain, and my brain tells me:

-"That is your book." -"Ah, I've seen my book."

Okay? So it's receiving. It's more passive. It's sort of recognizing something

when it's there in front of your eyes. Okay.

If a bird flies past the window, you're not looking... You're not deliberately looking

out the window, waiting:

"Oh, I'm waiting to see a bird."

You don't expect it to happen,

but then you say: "Oh. Oh, did you see that? Did you see that?

The bird flew past the window

with very bright feathers. What kind of bird is that?"

So: "I saw a bird", so past tense.

I saw a bird fly past the window. You weren't looking for it. It happened,

and you received that image unexpectedly. Okay.

But as I said, it's a bit complicated because sometimes...

Well, let me show you this example

to illustrate what can happen.

We talked about watching a film, and if you're in the present tense:

"We are watching a film now."

So the phone rings, a friend is there, and:

"Oh. Can...? Sorry. Can I call you back? Because we're watching a film now. I don't want to miss it."

So, at the moment we are watching a film. But if you are talking about yesterday:

"We saw a film yesterday."

Okay? You can say: "We saw a film."

You could also say: "We watched a film yesterday",

which sort of makes it sound a bit more active. You can say "watched" as well,

but you wouldn't use "look". Wouldn't say: "We looked at a film",

that doesn't sound right.

You can say: "We watched a film yesterday."

or "We saw a film yesterday."

For the future tense, you can say:

"We are going to see a film tomorrow."

And again, you can say: "We are going to watch a film tomorrow."

Okay? So "saw" and "watch", "see" and "watch", you

could use both of those if it's the past tense or the present te-... Future tense, sorry.

But in the present tense, what you're doing now:

"We are watching a film."

It's kind of the activity of watching. We're doing it now, so it's important.

"We are watching, concentrating on the film now.

Yesterday we saw a film, tomorrow we're going to see a film,

but today we're watching a film at this moment."

So I'm sorry it's a bit complicated, but that's the way it is.

It's just the way it feels

to a native speaker, so I hope that's not too complicated,

and I hope the idea of the active versus the passive helps you to

decide which one of these three verbs to use. So,

if you'd like to go to the website, there is a quiz on this subject at www.engvid.com.

Please go and give that a try, see how you do,

and hope to see you again soon. Okay,

thanks for watching. Bye.