A Question of Grammar

Ke   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 07:55 GMT
Please tell me which one is correct grammatically.
I saw she die.
I saw her die.
I saw she cross the road.
I saw her crossing the road.
Thanks.
Brennus   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 08:08 GMT
Dear ke,

Re: "I saw she die; I saw she cross the road." These are grammatically correct for some of the Creole Englishes, primarily the West Indies, where they say "He hair look good" = "His hair looks nice" or "She ate she lunch" = "She ate her lunch" but, of course, not for Standard English.

There is nothing wrong with Creole languages per se. They are often marvellous simplifications of existing languages (English, Dutch, French, Portuguese etc.) but this is a different topic.
mjd   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 08:11 GMT
To answer your question, the correct ones are:

"I saw her die."
"I saw her crossing the road."
Ke   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 08:19 GMT
Thanks. Btw, is 'I saw her cross the road' correct? I was taught that since 'cross' is an action that takes awhile, then it's supposed to be 'crossing' which is added with 'ing'.
mjd   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 08:25 GMT
"I saw her cross the road" is fine.
ke   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 09:56 GMT
Hi, should the subject always change its form after a verb? For example, she pretends she is out should be she pretends her is out? Thanks again.
Brennus   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 22:47 GMT
Use "she" in this case (pronoun) not her (possesive pronoun).
Ved   Wednesday, February 09, 2005, 02:55 GMT
"I saw her crossing the road" = I am not stating if she made it to the other side

"I saw her cross the road" = She definitely wasn't hit by a car while she was crossing the road
from OHIO   Wednesday, February 09, 2005, 19:32 GMT
Brennus,

I'm wondering why you used "per se" in this sentence :"There is nothing wrong with Creole languages per se". "Per se" means "by itself" and the way you used it doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks