Here we’ll be discussing two commonly confused English words saw and seen, and try to find out how to correctly use them with the help of sentence examples.
Saw and Seen are generally confused because both represent the action in the past and are derived from the word see.
Let’s see one example before starting. What creates the confusion ?
Correct : I saw him.
Incorrect : I seen him.
It is incorrect to write ‘I seen’ and the correct way is ‘I saw’. Now let’s discuss how to use these two words correctly.
When to use Saw
The English word saw is the past tense form of the word see, and it is usually used to highlight an event / action that happened in the past.
5 examples of sentences using saw :
- I saw him doing the work.
- They saw someone entering the room.
- Mark saw his friends in the market.
- She saw him with another girl.
- I saw the train.
When to use Seen
The English word seen is the past participle of the word see and generally used to make a compound verb with words like had, have, has, was or were.
5 examples of sentences using seen :
- He had seen the plane.
- I have seen him going to the market.
- I was seen picking the bag.
- They were seen leaving for the airport.
- Ekta has seen the fort.
Word seen is also used in question sentences.
Correct : Have you seen my pen ?
Incorrect : Have you saw my pen ?
Correct : Has he seen the plot ?
Incorrect : Has he saw the plot ?
From the above examples we can infer that Pronoun (you, he, she, they etc.) + seen, is used in asking question.
Notice in the above examples saw is a standalone verb and does not require any other verb. Try replacing saw with seen and you’ll see the sentence doesn’t make a completed sense.
For example :
correct : I saw the baby.
Incorrect : I seen the baby.
If we still want to write the above sentence with seen we should use the extra verbs like have, had etc.
Correct : I have seen the baby.
Let’s look at a sentence using both saw and seen together.
Example : Have you seen our resources for crazy confusing words ?, Yes I have seen it.
All you have to do is to remember the rules and know where they should be used.
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