Learn how to use the verb "see"
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| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha and welcome to Know Your Verbs. In this episode, we're going to talk about the verb, "see." Let's get started. |
| The basic definition of "see" is to perceive with your eyes. This really means to use your eyes to get information, you use your eyes to look at things, to understand things, to gain knowledge by looking at things. By using your eyes, focusing your eyes on things, you can learn things or gain information, gain knowledge, this is to perceive. But the basic definition though is just to perceive with your eyes, to use your eyes to perceive, to gain information, to gain knowledge. |
| Okay, let's see the conjugations for the verb, "see." See, sees, saw, seen, seeing. |
| Let's talk about a few additional meanings of the verb "see." First one, "to form a mental picture of." "To form a mental picture of," means to use your mind to create an image. So "see" has the meaning of creating an image in your mind. For example, "I can see my childhood home clearly; it was one story and had a big yard." "What do you see when you close your eyes?" So in these example sentences, we're not actually using our eyes to see something. In this use of the word, "see," we are imagining it and, in our minds, we are making a picture. We're not actually using our eyes to see these items, instead, maybe there are things we saw in the past and we are imagining them mentally, we are creating a mental image of something. So, when I say, "I can see my house clearly, my childhood house," it means in my mind, I can form a clear image of the house in my mind. In the question, "What do you see?" it means when you close your eyes, what's the mental image that appears in your mind? So, "see" is used to create mental images, to refer to creating mental images here. |
| Next is "to examine" or "to watch." In this use of the verb, "see," there's sort of the nuance of an expectation. We want to use our eyes to watch something as it changes or to examine a change as it happens, to examine a behavior. "Let's see how the team does in today's match." "I can't wait to see what the neighbors do when they realize we bought a pool." In the example of, "Let's see how the team does in today's match," we are talking about using our eyes, our actual eyes, perhaps if we are actually watching the match. If we go to the game where we see the match on TV, perhaps we are using our eyes. However, if we don't go to the match and we read the score from the game or we hear on the radio something about the game or we hear the results of the game, we can still use the verb "see." "See" has this nuance of examining something. So, we're expecting some results. So, "let's see," in this case, doesn't only mean using your eyes to examine, it can mean to examine the results of something, to examine the outcome of something. In the second example sentence, "Let's see how the neighbors react," we see the same thing. So, it's the same sort of nuance, we are expecting a reaction, we are going to watch for a reaction from the neighbors when they realize we bought a pool. So, we want to examine their reaction, we want to examine an outcome, we could use the verb, "see." Though, maybe, we use our ears, like if the neighbor says, "Oh, my gosh. They bought a pool," that's sort of examining, you're waiting for a reaction there. We can still use the verb, "let's see," the expression, "let's see" to talk about that. So, "Let's see what happens next," for example. |
| Next one. "To make sure." "To make sure." "Please see that this task is finished." "He saw that all the arrangements had been made." In these sentences, the verb, "see" is used to mean make sure or to confirm something, to ensure something. In the first one, "Please see that this task is finished," we could replace the verb "see" with "make sure." "Please make sure that this task is finished." So, that's a very clear sentence, "Please see," is just a shortened way of saying "make sure." "Please see that this task is finished." "Please ensure that this task is finished," we can replace the verb here. The second example sentence is the same, "He saw that all the arrangements had been made." So, "He made sure that all the arrangements had been made." And, in these example sentences, "see" is replacing the expression "make sure" or "ensure." We can use "see" to mean the same thing, it's just a shorter way of say "make sure." |
| Next. "To find acceptable or attractive." "What do you see in him?" ‘What do you see in her?" "I don't understand what you see in this restaurant. It's terrible." What are the qualities you perceive in that person or the qualities that you can detect in that situation? What are the good points you identify there? We can use the word, "see" to sort of communicate that quickly and easily. So, "What do you see in him?" "What do you see in her?" is a much shorter way of saying "What do you find attractive about him or her?" "What do you find appealing about him or her?" Or "What characteristics of that person attract you to that person?" Saying, "What do you see in him?" "What do you see in her?" is a much shorter way of saying "What qualities do you find attractive in that person?" The same thing in the restaurant example, "I don't understand what you see in this restaurant," means "I don't understand what it is that you like about this restaurant. I think it's bad." So, instead, we shorten it to "I don't understand what you see in this restaurant." So, "see" means finding something attractive or interesting or appealing in some way. |
| Now, let's talk about some variations, so some slight changes or some additions to the verb, "see" that change the meaning. First is, "see through." "See through" means to understand the true nature of something, to understand the real characteristics of something. "He saw through my attempts to work with him and asked me on a date." "My boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking sickness." So, here, we see the use in the past tense in the first example sentence, "He saw through my attempts to work with him," meaning he saw the true nature of what I was doing. So, "He saw through my attempts to work with him and asked me on a date." So, in the situation, maybe the person, the speaker was trying to spend time with the "he" in this situation and was asking maybe to work together a lot. But "he" in the situation, saw through, saw to the true nature of the speaker's request, saw the true characteristics or the actual desire there and asked the speaker on a date. So, in this sentence, we understand that there was a different motivation, so something below the surface of the initial action that was happening. So, the other person in the situation understood the other motivation, the motivation below the surface motivation and so, we use "saw through" or "see through" to communicate that. So, "He saw through my attempts to work with him and he understood there was something else I wanted to do." In the second example sentence, "My boss saw through my lie and scolded me for faking sickness." So, again, we see in past tense, "My boss saw through my lie," so, saw that I was lying in other words, "saw through my lie." So, saw the true character of my lie, saw the true nature of my statement and scolded me. So, "My boss understood I lied and scolded me for faking sickness." So, "I got in trouble because I was faking an illness, faking sickness." My boss saw through my behavior, saw the true character, understood the true nature of my statement. |
| Next is, "see eye to eye." "See eye to eye." This means to have a common viewpoint or to agree. "We don't see eye to eye most of the time." "I'm glad we see eye to eye about this." So, maybe this one is an easy one to visualize. So, "to see eye to eye" with someone else means you agree with them, you share a viewpoint with them. You can kind of imagine maybe two people standing across from one another and if they see eye to eye, maybe they match, their line of sight matches, much in the way that their viewpoints or their opinions match exactly, exactly. So, they have kind of the same viewpoint, they can see "eye to eye." Their eyesight maybe matches, their opinions match. So, "to see eye to eye" and we can say, "I'm glad we see eye to eye about this," meaning I'm happy we agree about this. Or, in a negative, "We don't see eye to eye most of the time," means we don't agree most of the time or we have different opinions most of the time. |
| Alright. I hope that this video helped you level up your knowledge of the verb, "see" a little bit. If you have any questions or comments or if you know another way of using the verb, "see," let us know in the comments section below the video. |
| Thanks very much for watching, please make sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for more good stuff. Thanks for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again soon. Bye-bye. |
| We'll see you again soon. Uh-huh. |
| We end every video on this channel almost with "see you again soon." |
| But of course, I don't actually see you, you see me. We imagine you, we have – we form mental images in our minds of all of you watching in the camera in there, all those hundreds of thousands of you guys. That's kind of terrifying. |
| See? Uh-huh. |
| That was fun. |
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