Fifteen bison take the train: see someone do vs see someone doing

Q: What are verbs of perception?

Verbs of perception are the verbs of the senses : see , watch , hear , notice and feel . With an object and a second verb, they describe what someone witnessed: We watched the herd cross the road. I heard a calf calling. The second verb is a base form or an -ing form, never to + base form. The B2 lesson Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai teaches them on a drive through a bison refuge.

Q: What's the difference between see someone do and see someone doing?

The difference is how much you saw: the base form for all of it, -ing for part . I watched the herd cross the road means they got to the other side; I saw the herd crossing the road means they were still crossing. I heard the bull snort is one short sound; I heard a calf calling all morning went on and on. Often both are fine. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai drills the choice.

Q: Do you use to after see, hear and watch?

Not in the active : We watched the bison step onto the road , not to step . The second verb is a base form or -ing , and never a past form either: saw them step , not saw them stepped . To comes back only in the passive, mostly in news reports: Two bulls were seen to cross the creek. A tip in the scheme of Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai shows that formal pattern.

Q: What are some examples of verbs of perception?

Six from Fifteen bison take the train , a B2 lesson on edio.ai: I watched a long line of bison cross the road. I heard a calf calling somewhere in the grass. Can you see them coming out of the trees? I noticed its mom walking back for it. Watch him roll over and get up again. We felt the ground shake. The object always comes before the second verb .

Q: Is it “I heard them to call” or “I heard them calling”?

It's I heard them calling , or I heard them call for the whole sound. After hear , see , watch , notice and feel , there's no to , and the person is an object pronoun: them , not they . So I heard they calling is wrong too. The chat in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai offers I heard a calf to call for its mom as a wrong reply.

Q: How did bison come back to the Wichita Mountains?

In October 1907, fifteen bison left the Bronx Zoo by train : six bulls and nine cows. William Hornaday, the zoo's first director, had offered the government zoo bison if it would fence the range, and the fence around more than 8,000 acres cost $15,000. Frank Rush, the superintendent, received them, and a group led by the Comanche leader Quanah Parker greeted them. The herd doubled within five years. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai tells the story.

Q: Is it bison or buffalo?

Americans use both words for the same animal . In the story of the Wichita Mountains herd, the National Archives' records say buffalo , while the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service say bison . In 2016, Congress passed a bill to name the bison the national mammal. Harper's field story in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai ends with this surprise, and one speaking box asks which name students prefer.

Q: How do I teach verbs of perception to B2 students?

Start from something students can really see and hear : the street outside, a photo, a sound. Ask what they saw happen and what was going on, then set the base form and -ing side by side. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai moves from Harper's field story and her refuge drive to the scheme, a gap-fill on whole action or in progress, a table that joins two sentences and three more drills.

Q: What's a good game for practicing verbs of perception?

Play “Eyewitness” : two students act out a short scene, such as a phone call, a fall or an argument, while the class watches. Then the class reports as witnesses: I saw him drop his keys. I heard her shouting. I noticed them laughing. For speaking, the boxes in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai start from a photo: What can you see the bison doing? What might the driver hear?

Q: What's good homework for verbs of perception?

Good homework checks the meaning as well as the form : a quiz such as “I watched the kids cross the street.” Did they get to the other side? , plus base form or -ing gaps and word order. All ten homework tasks in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai check themselves, and the last two are Harper's field diary and her answer to a reader who grew up near the refuge.

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches verbs of perception with a base form or -ing through the fifteen bison that rode a train from the Bronx Zoo in 1907.

Grammar: See, watch, hear, notice and feel + object + base form for a whole action (I watched the bull roll over.) or -ing for one in progress (I heard a calf calling.).
Topic: How a zoo herd went west by train and thrived in what is now Oklahoma, with words such as roam, wallow, snort, refuge and depot.
Activities: A field story, a refuge drive and a reader's voice memo, self-checking drills, a chat about what you saw and boxes of questions.

What's inside

Chapter 1Warm-up: bison on board
- PictureUnlock
- Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
- Study the words: bison countryVocabularyTry it
- Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock
Chapter 2The Why Desk explains: a zoo herd goes west
- Look at the photo: a train across the prairiePictureUnlock
- Read Harper's field story on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
- Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Sort the words into the correct columns: agreed or debated?Sort into columnsUnlock
Chapter 3On the ground: windows up, please
- Listen to Harper and LenListeningTry it
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Ilene's voice memoListeningUnlock
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
Chapter 4Grammar: we watched the herd cross
- Study the scheme: we watched the herd crossGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: the whole action or in progress?Fill in the gapsTry it
- Fill in the table: join the sentences, same meaningFill in the tableUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
- Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
Chapter 5Let's talk: tell me what you saw
- Choose the right replies: tell Gabe what you sawChatTry it
- Look at the photo: bison on the roadPictureUnlock
- Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Match the pairs: words and meaningsMatchUnlock
- Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
- Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: base form or -ing?Fill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: what did they see or hear?QuizUnlock
- Put the words in the correct order: new sentencesUnjumbleUnlock
- Choose the correct option: Harper's field diaryChoose the optionUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps: Harper answers IleneDrag and dropUnlock

Animals vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

thrive
scholar
refuge
superintendent
shipment
depot
hoof
grassland
mammal

Grammar: verbs of perception + object + base form or -ing

After see, watch, hear, notice and feel, English adds an object and then a second verb: We watched the herd cross the road. A drive through a bison refuge, with hooves on the asphalt and a calf calling in the grass, is full of things to see and hear. Learners choose the base form or -ing by what they witnessed.

We watched the herd cross. I heard a calf calling.

After see, watch, hear, notice and feel, put the object, then the base form for a whole action or -ing for an action in progress.

Verb + object + a second verb

All five verbs take the same pattern: verb, object, then a base form or -ing. We saw the herd cross the road. We saw the herd crossing the road. Feel works the same way: We felt the ground shake. We felt the ground shaking.

Verb + object + base form or -ing

Verb	Object	Base form: the whole action	-ing: the action in progress
see	the herd	We saw the herd cross the road.	We saw the herd crossing the road.
watch	the bull	I watched the bull roll over.	I watched the bull rolling in the dust.
hear	a calf	I heard a calf call once.	I heard a calf calling in the grass.
notice	the cow	Len noticed the cow turn back.	Len noticed the cow walking back.
feel	the ground	We felt the ground shake.	We felt the ground shaking.

On the refuge road

I watched a long line of bison cross the road.
I heard a calf calling somewhere in the grass.
Can you see them coming out of the trees?
I noticed its mom walking back for it.
Watch him roll over and get up again.
I heard him snort from two feet away!

Whole action or in progress?

The base form shows the action from start to finish: I watched the herd cross the road means they reached the other side. -ing catches it in the middle: I saw the herd crossing the road. Often both are right, and the meaning shifts a little.

Whole action or in progress?

Base form: from start to finish

I watched the herd cross the road. (They got to the other side, and I saw it all.)
I heard the bull snort. (one short sound)
Watch him roll over and get up again. (the whole movement)

-ing: in the middle of it

I saw the herd crossing the road. (They were still crossing.)
I heard a calf calling all morning. (It went on and on.)
Can you see them coming out of the trees? (It's happening now.)

Often both are right

Many sentences work with both forms, and the meaning changes a little: I saw him leave (he left, and I saw it all). I noticed him leaving (he was on his way out). Both are good English: choose the one that fits what you saw or heard.

The object, for every person

The person is an object pronoun: me, you, him, her, it, us, them. So it's Len heard them snorting, never heard they snorting. No to and no past form follow: saw them step, not saw them to step or saw them stepped.

The object, for every person

Person	Object	Example
I	me	Len heard me laughing.
you	you	Len heard you laughing.
he	him	Len heard him laughing.
she	her	Len heard her laughing.
it	it	Len heard it calling. (it = the calf)
we	us	Len heard us laughing.
they	them	Len heard them laughing.

No to, no past form, an object pronoun

Use the base form without to: We watched the herd roam (not: to roam). Never a past form: I saw them step onto the road (not: saw them stepped). The person is an object: I heard them calling (not: heard they calling).

In the passive, to comes back

In formal news style, the passive puts to before the base form: Two bulls were seen to cross the creek. With -ing, nothing changes: They were seen crossing the creek. In the active, to never appears.

In the passive, to comes back

This is formal, mostly in news reports: Two bulls were seen to cross the creek. With -ing, nothing changes: They were seen crossing the creek.

Common mistakes

Four slips break the pattern: watched the bison to step, heard them to call, saw them stepped and heard they snorting. The fixes: watched the bison step, heard them calling, saw them step and heard them snorting.

We watched the bison to step onto the road.
We watched the bison step onto the road.
no to after watch, see, hear, notice, feel
I heard them to call.
I heard them calling.
base form or -ing, never to
We saw them stepped onto the road.
We saw them step onto the road.
base form, not the past
Len heard they snorting.
Len heard them snorting.
an object pronoun after the verb

More lessons on this grammar: Gerunds and infinitives lessons and exercises

Try the verbs of perception exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

18 auto-checked exercises
6 games
1 article
1 grammar scheme
1 set of word cards
2 audio clips
3 pictures
2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

describe a whole action you saw or heard: We watched the herd cross the road. I heard him snort from two feet away.
describe an action in progress with -ing: I heard a calf calling somewhere in the grass. Can you see them coming out of the trees?
use an object pronoun with no to and no past form: Len heard them snorting, not heard they snorting; saw them step, not saw them stepped
join two sentences into one: I noticed two cows. They were standing in the creek. → I noticed two cows standing in the creek.
tell a friend about a drive through a refuge: I watched a big bull wallow in the dust, like a happy dog.

Lesson 16 closes Wildlife comebacks, unit 4 of English B2.1 · How the World Works. Lesson 14 put a person after the verb and lesson 15 practiced -ing forms; here both meet after see, watch, hear, notice and feel, without to. Lesson 17 opens unit 5, Pop culture goes global, with comment adverbs. A drive where a herd crosses the road ahead gives every verb of perception a natural job.

Students spin a wheel of questions about wild animals, zoos and fences, then learn twelve words, from roam and wallow to depot and superintendent, with pictures and audio. They read Harper's field story on the 1907 bison train and sort its facts into agreed and debated, then hear her drive through the refuge with Len, a guide, and Ilene from Oklahoma answer her last line, both AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking drills, among them a table that joins two sentences into one. In the speaking chapter, students tell their friend Gabe what they saw in a chat, then open boxes about a photo of bison on a road, fences and names.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps and a memory game on the words; then forms to choose in new sentences, base form or -ing gaps, a quiz on what each sentence tells you, word order, Harper's field diary and her answer to Ilene.

Grammar:: verbs of perception · see, watch, hear + object + base form · verb + object + -ing · whole action vs action in progress
Topic:: bison · Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge · Oklahoma · the Bronx Zoo · American Bison Society · wildlife comebacks · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

Describe a short video clip twice: play any clip of animals or a busy street. First students say what they saw happen (I saw a dog jump into the lake), then what was going on (I heard birds singing).
Ask who says buffalo and who says bison before the reading. Students share the word they know, then read Harper's story to find both names and who uses each one.
Play the refuge drive twice: first for where Harper and Len disagree about fences, then for every sentence with see, hear, watch or notice. Students mark each one as a whole action or in progress.
Draw the action as an arrow: I watched the herd cross covers the whole arrow; I saw the herd crossing points to one spot in the middle. Students draw arrows for the gap-fill sentences before they choose.

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The whole course: English B2.1 · How the World Works

32 lessons for adults at B2 in American English, each answering one question about how the world works. The team of The Why Desk, a small online magazine in Pittsburgh, takes on one question a week, from the day a computer beat the world chess champion to eight people sealed inside Biosphere 2. Learners tell stories with narrative tenses, speculate about the past and the future, and report what experts claim. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

Unit 1 AI and the future of work
narrative tenses, by and until, be bound to and be likely to, the future perfect
Unit 2 Health breakthroughs
the third conditional, the past perfect and past continuous passive, have something done, the passive with two objects
Unit 3 Moving people
the past perfect continuous, the passive infinitive and -ing form, it's worth and there's no point, the future in the past
Unit 4 Wildlife comebacks
reporting verbs with a that clause, with an object and infinitive and with -ing, verbs of perception
1. Lesson 13Did wolves really change Yellowstone's rivers?Reporting verbs + that clause
2. Lesson 14Bringing a parrot back from the edgeReporting verbs + object + (not) to + base form
3. Lesson 15The beavers that came by parachuteReporting verbs + -ing and verb + preposition + -ing
4. Lesson 16 · you're hereFifteen bison take the trainVerbs of perception + object + base form or -ing
Unit 5 Pop culture goes global
comment adverbs, wish and if only for the present and the past, have someone do and get someone to do
Unit 6 Money and smart choices
-ever words and no matter, should have and could have, prepositions for numbers and change, it's time and would rather
Unit 7 Language and communication
must have, might have and can't have, verb prefixes and suffixes, past modals in continuous and passive forms, agreement with quantities
Unit 8 Exploring the extremes
dimension nouns, the future continuous and future perfect continuous, compound adjectives, only, even and just

Questions about this lesson

What are verbs of perception?

Verbs of perception are the verbs of the senses: see, watch, hear, notice and feel. With an object and a second verb, they describe what someone witnessed: We watched the herd cross the road. I heard a calf calling. The second verb is a base form or an -ing form, never to + base form. The B2 lesson Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai teaches them on a drive through a bison refuge.

What's the difference between see someone do and see someone doing?

The difference is how much you saw: the base form for all of it, -ing for part. I watched the herd cross the road means they got to the other side; I saw the herd crossing the road means they were still crossing. I heard the bull snort is one short sound; I heard a calf calling all morning went on and on. Often both are fine. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai drills the choice.

Do you use to after see, hear and watch?

Not in the active: We watched the bison step onto the road, not to step. The second verb is a base form or -ing, and never a past form either: saw them step, not saw them stepped. To comes back only in the passive, mostly in news reports: Two bulls were seen to cross the creek. A tip in the scheme of Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai shows that formal pattern.

What are some examples of verbs of perception?

Six from Fifteen bison take the train, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: I watched a long line of bison cross the road. I heard a calf calling somewhere in the grass. Can you see them coming out of the trees? I noticed its mom walking back for it. Watch him roll over and get up again. We felt the ground shake. The object always comes before the second verb.

Is it “I heard them to call” or “I heard them calling”?

It's I heard them calling, or I heard them call for the whole sound. After hear, see, watch, notice and feel, there's no to, and the person is an object pronoun: them, not they. So I heard they calling is wrong too. The chat in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai offers I heard a calf to call for its mom as a wrong reply.

How did bison come back to the Wichita Mountains?

In October 1907, fifteen bison left the Bronx Zoo by train: six bulls and nine cows. William Hornaday, the zoo's first director, had offered the government zoo bison if it would fence the range, and the fence around more than 8,000 acres cost $15,000. Frank Rush, the superintendent, received them, and a group led by the Comanche leader Quanah Parker greeted them. The herd doubled within five years. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai tells the story.

Is it bison or buffalo?

Americans use both words for the same animal. In the story of the Wichita Mountains herd, the National Archives' records say buffalo, while the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service say bison. In 2016, Congress passed a bill to name the bison the national mammal. Harper's field story in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai ends with this surprise, and one speaking box asks which name students prefer.

How do I teach verbs of perception to B2 students?

Start from something students can really see and hear: the street outside, a photo, a sound. Ask what they saw happen and what was going on, then set the base form and -ing side by side. Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai moves from Harper's field story and her refuge drive to the scheme, a gap-fill on whole action or in progress, a table that joins two sentences and three more drills.

What's a good game for practicing verbs of perception?

Play “Eyewitness”: two students act out a short scene, such as a phone call, a fall or an argument, while the class watches. Then the class reports as witnesses: I saw him drop his keys. I heard her shouting. I noticed them laughing. For speaking, the boxes in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai start from a photo: What can you see the bison doing? What might the driver hear?

What's good homework for verbs of perception?

Good homework checks the meaning as well as the form: a quiz such as “I watched the kids cross the street.” Did they get to the other side?, plus base form or -ing gaps and word order. All ten homework tasks in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai check themselves, and the last two are Harper's field diary and her answer to a reader who grew up near the refuge.

How do you practice verbs of perception one-to-one?

Describe the view from a window together: teacher and student look out, or at a busy photo, and take turns: I can see a man crossing the street. I just saw a bus stop. The chat in Fifteen bison take the train on edio.ai works without a partner: Gabe asks about a drive through a bison refuge, and the right replies include We watched a whole herd cross the road in front of our car.

Are there interactive exercises for verbs of perception?

Yes. With no account, this page plays three parts of Fifteen bison take the train, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: Harper's refuge drive with Len, a gap-fill on the whole action or in progress and a chat that tells Gabe what you saw. The other parts need an account.

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About this lesson

What's inside

Animals vocabulary

Grammar: verbs of perception + object + base form or -ing

Verb + object + a second verb

Verb + object + base form or -ing

On the refuge road

Whole action or in progress?

Whole action or in progress?

The object, for every person

The object, for every person

In the passive, to comes back

Common mistakes

Try the verbs of perception exercises

What's in the lesson

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

Teaching tips

Teach the whole lesson in edio

Start a free trial

Open the lesson

Teach it live or as homework

The whole course: English B2.1 · How the World Works

Unit 1 AI and the future of work

Unit 2 Health breakthroughs

Unit 3 Moving people

Unit 4 Wildlife comebacks

Unit 5 Pop culture goes global

Unit 6 Money and smart choices

Unit 7 Language and communication

Unit 8 Exploring the extremes

Questions about this lesson

Teach this lesson with your students