Heard/saw

Question

Hi.Is it correct to use I heard him opened the door? I am familiar witht the structure of Heard/saw   sb  do sth, but I am not sure if we can use heard/saw sb did sth.Are both forms possible?Thanks

Free_spirit · Accepted Answer

Close, you need to "I heard him open the door" or "I heard when he opened the door".

If you do not know who opened the door, then you will use a structure such as "I heard when the door was opened" (i.e. but I don't know who it was).

Heard is past tense of "hear" (to hear), and in many ways "saw" is different, because it is past tense of "see" (to see). The core idea is the same - that you were aware of "him" opening the door. Naturally, you can hear some without seeing it (from another room perhaps), and see something without hearing it (from a distance, or through a window).

The structure is the same:

"I saw him open the door"
"I saw when he opened the door".
"I saw when the door was opened"

Avangi · Answer

hrsaneiI am familiar witht the structure of Heard/saw sb do sth, but I am not sure if we can use heard/saw sb did sth.
Are both forms possible?

No, they're not.

You need the infinitive, "[to] open." It has no tense, and it's form does not change.

I hear him open the door.
I heard him open the door.

I see him do something.
I saw him do something.

"[To] do" is the infinitive.

With some main verbs, we include the infinitive marker, "to":

I tell him to do something.
I told him to do something.

I tell him to open the door.
I told him to open the door.

It's often confusing, because the infinitive and the simple present tense (except 3rd person singular) usually have the same form.

Ozzourti · Answer

hrsaneiHi.
Is it correct to use I heard him opened the door?

No. It should be "I heard him open the door.".

I heard he did something = somebody told me he did something
I saw he did something = I saw the result of an action

CalifJim · Answer

hrsaneiHi.
Is it correct to use I heard him opened the door?
I am familiar witht the structure of Heard/saw sb do sth, but I am not sure if we can use heard/saw sb did sth.
Are both forms possible?

Thanks

No. Both forms are not possible.

CJ

Avangi · Answer

CalifJim Both forms are not possible.

I often suspect this of being ambiguous.

Hrsanei · Answer

Thanks everybody.

I had encountered the phrase I heard his name mentioned, that was the reason I had posted that question.

But now when I look at it, I see that we use mentioned not mention because the sentence is in passive and it is actually the short form of I heard his name was mentioned.

So I think it can be concluded that there are two structures.

1. Heard/saw sb do Ex. I saw him die

2. Heard sth/sb done Ex. I saw him killed

BTW, thanks for your time and help

Avangi · Answer

hrsanei I heard his name mentioned,

There may be various ways to analyze this.
I wonder if "mentioned" could be an object complement here?

If you take, "I heard his name." alone as a sentence, "name" is the direct object of the verb "heard."

"Mentioned" tells us something more about "name." ("Mentioned" is the past participle here.)

hrsanei the sentence is in passive and it is actually the short form of I heard his name was mentioned.

The sentence is not really "in passive." You might say that the past participle (a non-finite verbal) has a passive implication.
The main verb, "heard" is clearly active.

Your examples, "I saw him die" and "I saw him killed" are both examples of object complements, in my opinion, and are perfect examples of the structure in your original sentence in the post directly above.

If you change your original to "I heard him mentioned," it might be easier to see.

"I heard him." is a perfectly fine stand-alone sentence. "Him" is the direct object of the verb.
The past participle "mentioned" complements (completes, or tells something more about) the direct object, "him."

And yes, you could rewrite this using a passive main verb and a passive infinitive:
He was heard [by me] to be mentioned.

By the way, "I heard his name was mentioned" has an entirely different meaning:
I heard that someone [else] mentioned his name.

CalifJim · Answer

Avangi
CalifJim Both forms are not possible.
I often suspect this of being ambiguous.

You're not the only one, but I was in a hurry!

CJ

Hrsanei · Answer

Thanks Avangi for your complete and informative response.

But actually I have problem distinguishing these two sentences

I heard his name mentioned,

I heard his name was mentioned

To me both have the same meaning.(I heard that someone mentioned his name)

I would be grateful if you would differentiate them so I can get the point.

Thanks for your time

Avangi · Answer

I heard his name mentioned. I heard John speak Peter's name.

I heard his name was mentioned. Jerry told me that he heard John speak Peter's name.

In the second one, there are five actors instead of only three.
You might also say that the "that" has been omitted in the second one.

The first sentence uses the object complement structure.
The second sentence uses a relative "that" clause, with the "that" omitted.

#1 I saw him killed (by someone) - 3 people, counting the implied actor

#2 I heard he was [seen] killed.

Someone[ A ] told me that someone else[ B ] saw him killed (by someone else[ C ] ) 5 people

Sorry, my formatting is stuck. Well, it was!

- A.

Heard/saw

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