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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Verbs

Can someone explain why we do not change "tell" to "tells" to agree with "Mrs. Talley" in the following sentence:
We heard Mrs. Talley tell Mr. Ogelvie that we are going to have a fire drill at 2:30.
I know it's right based on how it sounds, but I need a better answer for explaining it to my class.
  

Top answer

It's a bare infinitive, not a present tense. We heard her tell him (not she tells ) that we are going to have a fire drill.

— Blue Jay

  • It's a bare infinitive, not a present tense.
  • We heard her tell him (not she tells ) that we are going to have a fire drill.
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6 Answers
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It's a bare infinitive, not a present tense.
We heard her tell him (not she tells) that we are going to have a fire drill.
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In that sentence, the main verb "heard" is being followed by the bare infinitive "tell."

Edit: cross-posted with Blue Jay.
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teechrEdit: cross-posted with Blue Jay.
Great minds think alike.....Emotion: smile
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Thanks Blue Jay; or as I like to put it: "Alike minds think they're great!" Emotion: giggle
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AnonymousCan someone explain why we do not change "tell" to "tells"
Look up "catenative verbs" online.

Catenative verbs are connected in a definite grammatical pattern to another verb which follows. There are about 10 different catenative patterns. The pattern for see and hear is just one of them. The "see-hear" pattern is:

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This was very helpful - thanks for the explanation!
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