What does this sentence mean?
I saw him wash the car
Does it mean "I saw him when he was washing the car"?
Answer
It doesn't quite mean "I saw him when he was washing the car".
As I have explained elsewhere
Verbs of perception like see, hear, watch, feel take both -ing-form and bare infinitival clauses as complements, but there is a slight difference of aspect between them:
The infinitival complement implies that what is perceived is a completed action.
He watched me play means that he watched until I was finished playing.
The -ing-form complement implies that the action continues while it is perceived, but is not necessarily finished during that period.
He watched me playing means that he watched for some time while I played, but implicates that he stopped some time before I finished.
So "I saw him wash the car" means that I saw him complete his action of washing the car, right down to finishing the job. "I saw him when he was washing the car" is a (very rough) paraphrase of I saw him washing the car.
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