sentence structure

Hi, can someone please tell me why the word "change" in the sentence "i hated to see it change" a noun? Also, do the tenses in the sentence have to agree with each other? If so, why does the sentence “ As you might imagine, this did not make the judges the happiest people I’ve ever seen” not follow tense agreement? The underline verbs represent two different tenses. Under what condition can we use different tenses in the same sentence?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Unreg,

1. I hate to see it change.

— I would call "change" an infinitive, in that example.

2. As you might imagine, this did not make the judges the happiest people I’ve ever seen.

— "might" is a modal verb: it expresses a possible "imagining" of the addressee, at the moment of speaking.

"Did not make" is a past tense: the event described occurred in the past.

"I've ever seen" is a present perfect: it expresses a continuum of "seeing happy people" in the speaker's lifetime, up to the moment of speaking.

All the best,

MrP

[ichiro_canada]

what would the sentence mean if "have" were changed to "had"? Also, if change is an infinitive, what is "to see"?