Arwa
Singing or sing? Which is correct? 1. It would be nice to hear her singing. 2. It would be nice to hear her sing. If both sentences are correct grammatically, what’s the difference semantically? Thanks in advance!
2020年7月25日 11:55
回答 · 17
3
Salam! You can follow verbs of perception (see, hear, watch, listen to) with either the base form or the -ing form of a verb. In many cases, there is no real difference in meaning. I think that this is one of those cases where you could use them pretty well interchangeably. There is a subtle difference, however. The base form suggests a single completed action, which is why Jesse says that "It would be nice to hear her sing" might suggest one particular song: heard in its entirety. Meanwhile, the -ing form suggests the action or process of singing. [NB The 'singing' of "I'd like to hear her singing" could also be interpreted as a verbal noun, as Kylie Alonso suggests. This is because of the ambiguity of the pronoun 'her'. But let's presume it's a verb here, as in "Would you like to hear me singing?" (verb) as opposed to "Would you like to hear my singing?" (noun).] Here's an other example which might be a little clearer: Compare, for example, "I heard you singing in the shower this morning" with "I heard Pavarotti sing at La Scala in 1983". The first sentence suggests that I walked past the bathroom door this morning and just happened to hear you while you were singing : this focuses on a few moments of an action that was in progress at a particular moment. By contrast, the second sentence refers to an entire concert which you heard from beginning to end. I hope that helps.
2020年7月25日
1
https://www.lexico.com/definition/sing https://www.lexico.com/definition/singing According to Lexico, the word "sing" has more possible meanings than the word "singing". In your sentences, they mean the same except "sing" is informal.
2020年7月25日
@Jesse @Kylie Thank you very much :)
2020年7月25日
You can pretty much use them interchangeably. If there is a difference at all, it might be something like this: 1. It would be nice to hear her singing (a general selection of songs). 2. It would be nice to hear her sing (a particular song).
2020年7月25日
They’re both grammatically correct, singing is a noun, so you would use this to talk about her singing in general, but if you want to hear her sing, which is a verb, then you should use the second sentence. 🤗
2020年7月25日
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