I saw Jane came/come by yesterday

I saw Jane come by yesterday.

Hi Yoong Liat,

Thanks for your reply. I understand now.

Regards,

Tinanam

Hi Tinanam

You're welcome.

Regards

YL

If you actually saw Jane when she came by, then you should say "I saw Jane come by yesterday." But you can also say, "I saw (that) Jane came by yesterday." In this case, you didn't actually see Jane, but you saw some evidence that told you she had been there. (Maybe she left you a note.)

Hi Knoff,

Thanks for your help. Could I know in #2 case, where you didn't actually see Jane, if "that" is needed? Because I noticed there is a bracket with "that".

Thank you.

Regards,

Tinanam

"I saw Jane come by yesterday." In this sentence "come" is a bare infinitive. Time is established by the verb "saw" which is in past tense form.

"I saw that Jane came by yesterday." In this sentence "came" is the lexical verb of a subordinate clause hence it must show its relation to time, which in this case is past tense. "That" shows us that this is a subordinate clause a

TN: If you wish to say that you heard about or were told about Jane's visit, many native speakers would prefer the present tense: Well, I SEE (that) Jane CAME by yesterday. If you use the present tense, "that" would definitely be optional. E. G., I see/hear/understand Jane GOT married last week.

AnonymousTN: If you wish to say that you heard about or were told about Jane's visit, many native speakers would prefer the present tense: Well, I SEE (that) Jane CAME by yesterday. If you use the present tense, "that" would definitely be optional. E. G., I see/hear/understand Jane GOT married last week.

I'm sure it's just a typo, but to avoid

It is not a typo. I was referring to SEE instead of his SAW.

Okay. I saw that you had capitalized CAME and GOT and thought you were referring to them.

We can use the past for that meaning as well as the present, depending on when you made the observation.

So I dropped by the Andersons' the other day and saw [that] they were in the process of building a new deck. Looked great.

I see you painted the front hallway. It looks nice.