(1) We watched as she fell.
[Cambridge Dictionary (English-Japanese)]
(2) We watched her fall.
Is there any difference in meaning or connotation between (1) and (2)?
(1) seems a little strange to me since "watched" in (1) is an intransitive verb (and hence does not have a direct object).
[Edit] I made a terrible blunder. I have corrected (2).
We watch her fall. ⇒ We watched her fall.
There are two differences between the two sentences:
In the first sentence, the verb "watch" is intransitive. In the second, it is transitive. That is, the first does not say what we watched, just when we watched it. Without more context, I'd guess that what "we watched" was her falling. But the same structure could be used if you watched something else. Like, "We watched the concert as the sun rose." In that case what we watched is NOT the same as the thing that determines the time.
The first sentence is in past tense and the second is in present tense. In the first sentence, the watching happened in the past. In the second, it is happening in the present.
The two statements have identical meaning in almost every context and most English speakers will understand and accept both equally.
[Guess] 'She fell as we watched (on)' looks like intransitive due to phrasal verb, which is contracted in your sentence, and passive - especially if you didn't try to catch her ;)
But 'to watch' is transitive, per the Oxford.
