See That She Was Smiling

Question

I have some question about the usage of "see":

He noticed that she was smiling.

He saw that she was smiling.

Could the second sentence be uncommon. Would the following:

He saw her smiling.

be more common?

nmar · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-18 22:29:38Z

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#2 is not uncommon, and I don't think one could say with any certainty that #3 appears more frequently than #2.

answered Oct 18, 2014 at 22:29

nmar

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user3169 · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-18 23:29:45Z

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I think all of your examples are normally used.
However, "noticed" has more of a nuance of "caught his attention" rather than just what he saw.

answered Oct 18, 2014 at 23:29

user3169

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I think notice has more the meaning "to pay attention to what one has seen," or something like that. The main thing is we have 100s of words that refer to seeing, and none of them are exaxt synonyms.
– user6951
Commented Oct 19, 2014 at 18:01

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