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I heard a phrase, a moment ago,

We will see this continue.

Why neither continuous tense nor "to" was used for "continue"?

Oscar
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  • When you say "absence of to" are you thinking of something like "We will see this continue to..."? We only use to in this context if there is a verb following it, like "We will see this continue to grow." If that's not what you meant, can you provide an example? – stangdon Feb 21 '17 at 17:13

2 Answers2

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With verbs of perception the complement is the bare infinitive (without "to") or the present participle

I heard the phone ring|ringing.

I saw the car skid|skidding on the ice.

I smelled the wood burn|burning.

She heard the baby cry|crying.

The fans watched the teams compete|competing.

They felt the ground quake|quaking.

TimR
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In my opinion,

V(see) + O(this) + O.C(continue)
[Verb of perception]+ O + [Infinitive]

O: object, O.C : objective complement
Verb of perception : see, watch, notice, hear, etc.

Verb of perception can take an infinitive as an objective complement.

Ting Choe
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