Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring

Using verb patterns to represent perceptions

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Ellipsis with perception verbs

Ellipsis refers to the omission of words from a sentence. With ellipsis, it is usually clear from the context which word or words have been left out:

A:	Did you hear her swearing?
B:	Yes, I heard her [^]. (Bank of English)
I heard her [swearing].

Note that ellipsis is possible with many, but not all perception verbs. For example, while it is possible to say I noticed [^], it is not possible to say I found [^].  This is because a verb like notice is directly related to perception, whereas a verb like find is being used figuratively, ie it is normally used to represent an action or event, rather than a perception.

With some perception verbs, the omitted words can be a range of structures:

I heard [^].

I heard [that she was ill that day].

I heard him [come in].

I heard them [singing].

I heard [what happened].

Here is a list of common perception verbs with which the omitted words can be a range of structures:

hear see feel notice observe watch learn

Here is a list of common perception verbs which can be followed by ellipsis, but typically limited to one structure:

tell  overhear  catch smell discover spot find spy perceive find out

For further information about ellipsis in general, see Developing cohesion:Ellipsis.

Introduction
Participants associated with perception verbs
Grammatical patterns associated with the phenomenon
Verb followed by a noun group
Verb followed by a that clause
Verb followed by an object and the bare infinitive
Verb followed by an object and the -ing form
Verb followed by a wh-clause
Verb followed by an if/whether clause
Verb followed by an object and an adjective/-ed participle clause
Ellipsis with perception verbs
Present simple v present continuous tense
A note on the order of participants