French Perception Verbs + Infinitive: voir, entendre

Voir, entendre, regarder, écouter, sentir and laisser take an infinitive with nothing in front of it: Je le vois venir. - I see him coming. English does the same (I saw him leave), so the infinitive is easy. The trouble is everything around it.

The verbs, and no linker

Six verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling and letting take an infinitive straight after them, like faire, vouloir and pouvoir.

The glosses: I can see the train coming. She is watching us play. I can hear my neighbour talking. I am listening to the rain falling. I can feel the cold coming. Let me go!

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1. 1je la vois lire
2. 2je le regarde cuisiner
3. 3je le vois courir
4. 4je l'entends parler

I see her reading. I watch him cooking. I see him running. I can hear her talking (on the phone).

Two English habits to drop. There is no de or à: not je le vois de venir. And English -ing is a French infinitive here: I can hear her singing is Je l'entends chanter.

Where a noun object goes

When the infinitive has no object of its own, a noun can go on either side of it. Both orders are correct and common.

• On entend chanter les oiseaux. / On entend les oiseaux chanter. - You can hear the birds singing.
• J'ai vu partir Marie. / J'ai vu Marie partir. - I saw Marie leave.

When the infinitive has its own object, the doer normally goes first. Put it after both and the sentence turns to soup:

• J'ai vu Marie fermer la porte. - I saw Marie close the door.

Where a pronoun goes

A pronoun for the one doing the action has one place: in front of the conjugated verb, as with faire.

Never je vois le venir. After a positive command the pronoun follows the verb, as always.

Je le vois venir also means I can see what he is up to.

Does the participle agree?

In a compound tense, vu, entendu and regardé can agree with a direct object placed before them. Ask one question: does that object do the infinitive's action?

It does the action: agree.

It has the action done to it: no agreement.

These endings are silent, so this is a rule for writing. An object after the verb never makes it agree: J'ai vu partir les enfants. - I saw the children leave.

Fait never agrees at all: see faire causatif.

laisser or permettre

English let and allow meet two French verbs with different wiring.

• Je le laisse partir. - I let him go.
• Je lui permets de partir. - I allow him to leave.

Laisser often means not stopping rather than granting a right: Laisse-le dormir. - Let him sleep. Permettre is permission, and the formal end of the scale:

laisser tomber and laisser faire

Laisser tomber is to drop, and from there to give up and to let someone down. Learn it as one verb.

Laisse tomber ! is the everyday never mind. French uses the other one as a noun, le laisser-faire, and English borrowed the idea as laissez-faire.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Look out of a window and say what you can see and hear: je vois, j'entends + infinitive.
2. Write two sentences in the passé composé and decide whether vu agrees.
3. Then read verbs with à, de or nothing.