A crowd of people had gathered to watch the youth take his final breath and throw stones at him.
Why is that sentence using take and not taking?
asked Mar 28, 2017 at 21:04
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Similar to: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/21587/… and to: english.stackexchange.com/questions/9649/… Much guidance on this question at: english.stackexchange.com/questions/329/…– Ronald SoleCommented Mar 28, 2017 at 22:26
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I don't know what you mean by static (the context suggests you mean finite), but take is an infinitive.– StoneyB on hiatusCommented Mar 28, 2017 at 22:29
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I'm assuming static here means non-continuous. Some posters have referred to the "taking" version as continuous, which I'm assuming means "continues on through time*. If the event is only a single point in time then it will not be changing, even if it itself represents a change in something.– Stew CCommented Mar 29, 2017 at 18:13
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1 Answer
"I watched the sun go down." means I watched the whole event (go down) from beginning to end (whatever that means in the context of the sentence), whereas "I watched the sun going down." means I watched the sun at some point while it was in the act of going down (maybe the whole event, but maybe only a glimpse at any point in the process).
