Look. See. Watch 👀 What's The Difference?

 

You've seen more than one hundred posts on English, but if you've looked through our old posts, you'll notice there hasn't been one on the following:

•  Look 👀
• See 👁,
• Watch🔭

Instead of watching something on social media, check out our latest post. 👇

English has three verbs that are about sight: Look, See, and Watch. It's not always clear which one we need to use. Let's take a look at the example below.

Maude is working from home. She's talking to her co-workers on the monitor, but is looking at the information on her laptop. Her smartphone is mounted next to her computer. It's open on her Instagram, but she keeps it nearby so she can see if her mom or one of her children texts her. She's not watching any of the videos or looking at photos.

As you can see, the see vision verbs are used differently. Look at the infographic below.

Think of the infographic as a guide. There are exceptions, but this is generally how look, see, and watch are used in English. 

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of  look, see, or watch. You can copy and paste the passages into the comments section if you want. 

Jon was annoyed with his children, Sam and Kaz. He had taken them out to _____ a professional football game, but they spent most of the game _____ at memes on their smartphones. Worse, neither one _____how angry he was at them.

 

Kumiko was hiking in the mountains just outside Tokyo when, just to the right, she _____ a bear sitting behind a tree. She didn't panic, but she kept ____ straight ahead and ___ out for any bear cubs (momma bears are very protective of their babies).

 

 Kyon and Maria-Julia were at a trendy cafe in Montreal talking about their ESL class. Maria-Julia was nodding her head but was _____ over Kyon's shoulder at their handsome, Brazilian classmate Mateus sitting at the next table with their other classmate Yuki. Kyon _____ the dreamy expression on Maria-Julia's face and started laughing.

 

Lucinda agreed to go to an old repertoire movie theatre to ____ Blue Velvet with her new boyfriend, George. She thought it was boring but George was _____ it wide-eyed, but Lucinda kept _____ at her watch - totally uninterested.

 

Do you see the link below😉?  

Test your understanding with the grammar quiz from Test English.  

Look vs Watch vs See - Grammar Short | Test English 

If you're interested, you can also take a look at Verbs Of The Senses (B2) .  

As you know, I love phrasal verbs and idioms. Below are a few examples with the verbs Look, See, and Watch.