hellooo

hello english teachers please explain these sentences for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!
she felt someone touch her shoulder.

they heard the dog bark in the middle of the night.

please explain why sentences above used touch and bark? not barked???????

I'll give you one more similar example:

I saw him cross the street.

As far as I remember, there is one more possibility in such sentences:

she felt someone touchING her shoulder.

they heard the dog barkING in the middle of the night.

I saw him crossING the street.

But the sentences differ. In the second set of sentences, you were not the witness of the whole action. In "I saw him crossING the street." you saw him as he was crossing the street. In the sentence "I saw him cross the street." you saw the whole action - he crossed the street.

I have no idea why they use infinitive instead of the past form of the verb - I'm no a native speaker, but let's hope such person will explain it to us.

They heard the dog "bark" instead of "barked" because "heard" is in the past tense so to say "barked" would be redundant.

"I have no idea why they use infinitive instead of the past form of the verb - I'm no a native speaker, but let's hope such person will explain it to us."

In English the simple present and the simple past forms of a verb can never be the complements of another verb in the same clause. If you see an -ed form after another verb, it's the past participle not the simple past. If you see the verb without any inflection after another verb, it's the base form (the infinitive without to-) not the simple present.

Because past tense is often confused with past participle and simple present is often confused with the base form, the best way is to learn how the verb 'be' goes in any situation.

If you use:

am, is, are: use simple present for other verbs
was, were: use simple past
be: use infinitive without to
to be: use to- infinitive
been: use past participle
being use -ing forms (which can be present participle or gerund)

Back to why not an -ed form in the sentences. In English past participles are used in perfect constructions and to convey passive ideas eg

compare

'I had the car repaired by someone (repaired = past participle so it's a passive idea)

'I had someone repair the car (repair = base form so it's an active idea)

'she felt someone touched her shoulder' would suggest someone had meant to say

'she felt her shoulder touched by someone' (passive)

or a two clause sentence

'she felt (that) someone had touched her shoulder