Episode 28 - Use See Look Watch Correctly in English

In this episode we are looking at the vocabulary we use when we talk about seeing something. We cover looking at our phone, watching movies and some phrasal verbs and alternative words we might use. Vocabulary We're always looking at our smart phones these days! In this sentence we are talking about all the people generally with smart phones, so they could be doing a variety of things they are seeing on their phone. For this reason we use 'looking at', rather than any other verb. What are you looking at? We usually ask this when we see someone looking in a particular direction but we don't know what they are focused on. Additionally, this is sometimes used if you think someone is staring at you and you don't know why. This is a good way to scare them! (But be careful they're not a scary person or you'll make them more angry!) I was watching videos on my phone. If the thing we are looking at is moving then we will usually use 'watch'. We often talk about 'people watching' when we just sit and watch the people going by. 'Stop watching your phone! She's not going to call!' In this case the person is angry because their friend keeps looking at their phone, again and again. So nothing on the phone is moving, but we still use watching because we have the idea of looking again and again. 'Are you watching the time? We don't want to be late.' So in these two statements we can say 'we're keeping an eye on' the time or the phone, we're just looking again and again. I'm looking at social media. There is such a variety of things on social media, videos, pictures and words that 'watch' and 'see' don't work. 'I rang yesterday, why didn't you pick up?' 'Oh, I was watching a movie.' 'Great! What did you watch?' In the above conversation 'watch' is exactly the same as 'see' in the conversation below: 'Where did you go yesterday?' 'We went to see a movie.' 'Oh yeah? What did you see?' We often use 'see' for talking about something we 'watched' after we've finished watching it, and to talk about theatre shows: 'I went to see a show.' 'Look over there, what can you see?' We often use look to mean 'pay attention to something'. We have a lot of phrasal verbs using 'look': look at, look for, look over. I can 'go looking for a new book in the library', but once I get the book I will start to 'read' the book. It's common to use a specific verb if there is an action more than simply seeing something. I can 'look through the video games on my phone' but once I choose one I'm going to 'play' a video game. Additional Vocabulary Gaze - to look at something without focus or in a fairly relaxed way, often for a long time. It is often in admiration but can also be when you're thinking about something else. Stare - to look at something with focus, often with quite intense focus To keep an eye on something - idiom - to return again and again over time to look at something, often used when we are 'watching the time' maybe because we don't want to be late or when we are 'keeping an eye on the pan' if we are cooking something and we don't want it to burn.