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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

question about the expression "Watch it work."

Hi, I have a few basic ideas about this expression but it still is a little bit of a mystery to me. Could you help me with the grammar? At first I thought it was an object complement, then a verbal reduction, but both do not work. "Work" cannot be the indicative of "it" since it would need to be "works." Could you help me to understand the grammar behind this unusual phrase? Than you in advance.
  

Top answer

'Watch it work' is not a special phrase. Verbs such as see, hear, notice, watch, etc can be followed by a direct object and a bare infinitive or an ing form: I saw him cross/crossing the road . He crossed/was crossing the road, and the speaker saw this.

— Fivejedjon

  • 'Watch it work' is not a special phrase.
  • Verbs such as see, hear, notice, watch, etc can be followed by a direct object and a bare infinitive or an ing form: I saw him cross/crossing the road .
  • He crossed/was crossing the road, and the speaker saw this.
  • I heard him shout/shouting at his son.
  • He shouted/was shouting at his son.
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2 Answers
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'Watch it work' is not a special phrase.

Verbs such as see, hear, notice, watch, etc can be followed by a direct object and a bare infinitive or an ing form:

I saw him cross/crossing the road. He crossed/was crossing the road, and the speaker saw this.
I heard him shout/shouting at his son. He shouted/was shouting at his son. The speaker heard this
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AnonymousAt first I thought it was an object complement, then a verbal reduction, but both do not work.
I turned on my new Roomba and watched it work.

It's a non-finite complement of the catenative verb watch. Or a catenative complement.
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