Hi, today you are going to learn how to use the irregular verbs see, saw, & seen correctly. Also, I’m going to teach you the commonly-made errors of these irregular verbs made my native English speakers.
See, Saw, Seen
- I see a dog.
- I saw a dog.
- I have seen a dog.
Now, sometimes native English speakers interchange the past simple (saw) with the participle (seen). This is incorrect, and it is one of the most common English errors made by native English speakers.
It’s not correct to say, “I seen a dog.” since “seen” is the participle and participle must be used with helping verbs such as “have”. The correct way to express this is, “I saw a dog.” or “I have seen a dog.”
Let’s look at the verb “to see” in a little more detail.
See
SEE is the present tense and the infinitive. Let’s look at some examples.
- Can you see what I mean? – SEE as the infinitive used with the modal verb CAN
- They see eye to eye. – SEE as the present tense
- She can’t see the truth. – SEE as the infinitive used with the modal verb CAN
Saw
SAW is the past simple. Let’s look at some examples of SAW.
- Yeah, I saw what u meant.
- They saw eye to eye.
- She saw the truth.
Seen
SEEN is the participle. And finally let’s look at some examples of SEEN.
- Yeah, I’ve seen your point.
- They haven’t ever seen eye to eye.
- She has never seen the truth.
Let’s Practice
So, now that you know how to use the irregular verb SEE in English, SEE, SAW, and SEEN, let’s practice what you’ve just seen. 😉 In the comments section below write three example sentences, one with SEE, one with SAW, and one with SEEN.
Also, please share this lesson if you found it useful! We appreciate all the positive feedback and Christin looks forward to creating more lessons covering real native English speaker errors for y’all! Thanks for learning English with us!