Charlie Bernstein
VIP Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- English
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- United States
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- United States
Crossing the street is a continuous action. You could just as well say, "I'm watching him crossing the street."One thing is still not clear to me in terms of logic: the combination of the progressive and the infinitive verb forms (I've found many examples of this combination). Let's consider "I'm watching him cross the street." Both actions are contemporaneous. But how is it possible for somebody to be in an ongoing process of watching a complete action? As you mentioned earlier, "I see him arrive" is incorrect. If I understand correctly, the verb "see" doesn't have to end with -ing to mean an ongoing process.
That's slightly ambiguous, because it could mean that you're watching him while you're crossing the street. So using cross instead of crossing is clearer. (But not much, since the context will probably be understood. Either word is really fine.)