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    Learn English > English lessons and exercises > English test #105787: Verbs of involuntary perceptions ...
    > Other English exercises on the same topic: Making portraits, describing [Change theme]
    > Similar tests: - Describing a face - Describing a picture - Adjectives: where to place them? - Vocabulary: sight - Vocabulary: room, place or space - Cause and consequence - Vocabulary: idioms: emotions 1 - Order of Adjectives
    > Double-click on words you don't understand


    Verbs of involuntary perceptions ...


    Contrary to verbs such as 'to look at' and 'to listen to' which describe voluntary and intentional actions requiring effort to be done, 'to hear' and 'to see' require no decisions and will power. We often see or hear things by chance, without doing it on purpose ...

    On the other hand, 'to feel', 'to taste', and 'to smell' can be voluntary OR involuntary verbs of perception, depending on the effort to be made in order to reach the result :

    ex : I can smell chocolate ! Who's making a cake ?

    ex : He could feel she was trembling ...

    ex : This syrup tastes like lemon ! 

     

    1) In the simple present, and in the simple past, they are built with 'can', the modal auxiliary in English :

    BEWARE! Future translators, these modals are not to be expressed in French.

    ex : Can you see the cute bird in the tree? No, I can't see it, but I can hear it very well ...

    ex : I couldn't hear him, but he could hear us quite perfectly.

    2)  In the present and the preterite, verbs of involuntary perception have no constructions in - ing :(If they do, they change meanings ...)

    ex : She 's tasting raw fish and says she doesn't like it.

    This sentence describes a deliberate action and has nothing involuntary about it. 

    ex : I'm sorry, but I'm not feeling very well ... (refers to physical health.)

     

    3)These verbs are built with 'a complement + infinitive without to' or are followed by a 'present participle'.

    ex a : His father saw him cross the street very carefully and congratulated him for it !

    In the first case, we want to insist on the whole action. (The boy's father saw him standing on the pavement on the other side, then, in the middle of the street, and finally, on this pavement.)    Verb of involuntary perception + Complement + infinitive without to

    ex b: I saw him pushing his young brother. That's why Paul fell down ...

                                Verb of involuntary perception + V in the present participle

    In that second case, the boy was seen pushing his young brother. He was caught red-handed. We want to insist on the duration of the action or on  an action which is being done.


    4) 'See' and 'hear' can be followed by a past participle  when the corresponding actions are endured.

    ex : I saw him pushed right in front of a bus ...

    ex : I heard the singer booed by his audience ! 

    You're now ready to 'fight' with the exercise ! Don't be scared, you just have to think a little about what sort of effort you have to make to produce the action ... and it will quickly become automatic !  

                          I can hear the baby crying !                  I'm listening to the band playing ...

     

     

                                                                                                                      

     

     

     

                                                                                          

     

     

            What  he can see is unbelievable !                      I'm looking at a clown juggling with coloured balls !

     





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    English exercise "Verbs of involuntary perceptions ..." created by here4u with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from here4u]
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    1) When I looked from the stage, behind the curtain, I that the theatre was full !
    2) Listen ! I a nightingale in the big oak tree !
    3) ' my dog, Fast ?' 'No, , but I him from the other end of the garden ... He must be chasing birds again ...'
    4) She the material this dress is made of : it's silk ; therefore, she decides to buy it !
    5) the tension in the meeting room ... There's going to be an argument ...
    6) 'Can we stop for a minute, please? I a little stone in my shoe ...'
    7) We horror stories about this district of New York ... A few of them are true ...
    8) At the moment, I the girl from next door !
    9) I smoke ! How come ? It's a non-smoking place, here !
    10) This perfume lily-of-the-valley ! It 's too strong and is giving me a headache !









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