Excuse my limited acquaintance on English usage; which sentence is grammatically correct, and if any, which meaning does each convey?
- I saw them play chess.
- I saw then playing chess.
Learn English – To see them play/playing
differencesgerund-vs-infinitivegrammaticalitysense-verbssyntactic-analysis
Best Answer
Both are grammatically correct. My interpretation as an AmE speaker is as follows.
This in the simple past. It implies the person doing the "seeing" saw the chess game finish in the past.
This is, again, the simple past, buy playing implies a continuous event, which was not finished at the time the speaker stopped "seeing" them.
This interpretation relies on formal speech. In informal speech, there is not as much distinction between these two forms.