- We witnessed Republicans winning the offices.
- We witnessed Republicans to win the offices.
Are these sentences OK?
We witnessed the Republicans winning the office.
We witnessed the Republicans (to) win the office.
Hello, Dear Teacher!
On what grounds after the verb [i]witness[/i] + object, we use -ing, infinitive and bare infinitive? Please, could you explain in detail?
Many thanks...
I try to carefully follow the usage in English discerning its nuances, if any. This, of course, does not mean that I am able to explain everything I understand. What you present is a situation where I find myself incompetent. You see I am, after all, a foreign user of English. I have limitations vis-a-vis a native user of the language. I’m sorry.
I’m not a teacher and I’m not a native.
In my opinion, the reason of using -ing-form and bare infinitive after the verb witness + object is that the verb witness substitutes the verb see in such a context. I think that to-infinitive is not natural in such contexts.