Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

“I seen him leave”
Verbosity about verbs: The big blunders

THE IRREGULAR VERB TO SEE

Another irregular verb that wreaks havoc is to see. The typical problem occurs in the past tense, with seen (and the failure to use the helping verb have or has to accompany seen).

Incorrect:

We seen them go into the building.

Winnifred, Horatio, and Ebeneezer seen the sales team earlier this morning.

They seen our repair trucks in the area.

I seen the manager talking to the team in his office.

Correct (if talking about an event in the past):

We saw them go into the building today.

Winnifred, Horatio, and Ebeneezer saw the sales team earlier this week.

They saw our repair trucks in the area.

I saw the manager talking to the team in his office.

Correct (if talking about something that has happened in the past and is continuing or routinely happens):

We have seen them go into the building on previous occasions.

Winnifred, Horatio, and Ebeneezer have seen the sales team earlier this week.

They have seen our repair trucks in the area.

I have seen the manager talking to the team in his office frequently.

Memory tip

Seen sounds like scene—from a movie. Just as you need a ticket for a movie scene, you need a have for a sentence seen.