grammaticality - "Heard me [infinitive]" vs. "heard me [present participle]"


"Heard me [infinitive]" vs. "heard me [present participle]"






    1. At that time, you wouldn't have heard me talk about it.

    2. At that time, you wouldn't have heard me talking about it.





    1. At that time, you wouldn't have heard me condemn it.

    2. At that time, you wouldn't have heard me condemning it.





Which one of the above sentences are incorrect and why?



Answer



None of them are incorrect.


English sense verbs, unlike most complement-taking verbs,
can take either gerund or infinitive complements.



  • I saw/heard him leave/leaving.


This is most common with long-distance senses, of course;
-- She smelled him leaving is a fairly unlikely (though not ungrammatical) thing to say.


It may be (and undoubtedly some people interpret it this way, though others don't)
that



  • I heard him leaving.


means something like (and may be a variant of)



  • I heard him while he was (in the act of) leaving.


while



  • I heard him leave.


means something like



  • I heard the noise produced by his leaving.


Not a whole lot of difference here, and for all intensive purposes they're synonymous.


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