be observed/watched/felt to do (2024)

Sentence to be discussed:
[1] I saw him enter the room.
[2] I notice them come in.
[3] The police observed a man enter the bank.
[4] He watched the barman prepare the beer he had ordered.
[5] I felt something crawl up my arm.

All of them are in active voice. And for [1] and [2], they can be transferred to passive voice:

[a] He was seen to enter the room.
They were noticed to come in.

So here is a pattern:
V sb. do→sb. be V-ed to do

Question:

Thanks in advance.

The pattern is not generally applicable, and all of (b)-(e) are wrong. Even (a) is marginal.
They all work better using a participle: He was seen entering the room.

Even with that correction, (d) is problematic, because "he" now refers to the barman, but the barman isn't the one who ordered the beer.
The passive is also unnatural for (e); it sounds as though someone

felt something crawl up

arm.

In general it is inadvisable to use the passive when you lose information about the original subject in the active version. Of course you can restore it with a by-clause (He was observed entering the bank by the police), but that can often sound clunky (as it does here).

yuand said:

All of them are in active voice. And for [1] and [2], they can be transferred to passive voice:

[a] He was seen to enter the room.
They were noticed to come in.

So here is a pattern:
V sb. do→sb. be V-ed to do

Click to expand...

Sentence (a) is okay, but "He was seen entering the room" would be more usual. "They were noticed to come in" does not work at all, and your general pattern is wrong.

There are two patterns:

[1] I saw him enter the room.
a. He was seen to enter the room
b. He was seen entering the room.

And three types of verb:

Some verbs can take both the "to infinitive" and the "-ing" form. -> He was seen to enter/entering the room.

Some verbs can take only the "to infinitive" form" - He was known living in London. He was known to live in London.

Some verbs can take only the the "-ing form" -> He was heard playing the piano. He was heard to play the piano.

Sentence to be discussed:

[1] I saw him enter the room.

[2] I notice them come in.

[3] The police observed a man enter the bank.

[4] He watched the barman prepare the beer he had ordered.

[5] I felt something crawl up my arm.

All of them are in active voice. And for [1] and [2], they can be transferred to passive voice:

[a] He was seen to enter the room.

They were noticed to come in.

So here is a pattern:

V sb. do→sb. be V-ed to do

Question:

Can this pattern be applied to verbs like observe, watch and feel? Or are the following sentences correct?

[c] A man was observed to enter the bank.

[d] The barman was watched to prepare the beer he had ordered.

[e] Something was felt to crawl up my arm.

Thanks in advance.

PaulQ said:

There are two patterns:

[1] I saw him enter the room.
a. He was seen to enter the room
b. He was seen entering the room.

And three types of verb:

Some verbs can take both the "to infinitive" and the "-ing" form. -> He was seen to enter/entering the room.

Some verbs can take only the "to infinitive" form" - He was known living in London. He was known to live in London.

Some verbs can take only the the "-ing form" -> He was heard playing the piano. He was heard to play the piano.

Click to expand...

Thank you sir. But I have found many sentences that contain sb was heard to do, so I was confused.

Thank you Sir. But I have found an item in Oxford Advanced learners' dictionary:
be observed to do something
He was observed to follow her closely.
observe verb - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com
What do you think of it?

Edinburgher said:

The pattern is not generally applicable, and all of (b)-(e) are wrong. Even (a) is marginal.
They all work better using a participle: He was seen entering the room.

Even with that correction, (d) is problematic, because "he" now refers to the barman, but the barman isn't the one who ordered the beer.
The passive is also unnatural for (e); it sounds as though someone

other than me

felt something crawl up

my

arm.

In general it is inadvisable to use the passive when you lose information about the original subject in the active version. Of course you can restore it with a by-clause (He was observed entering the bank by the police), but that can often sound clunky (as it does here).

Click to expand...

yuand said:

I have found many sentences that contain sb was heard to do,

Click to expand...

I suppose it is possible, but it is not common. The above are general examples. The point is that to verb and verbing can be right or wrong.