JAMB - English Language (1986 - No. 65)

In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase which best fills the gap:
We saw him ... over a wall as the police approached
leaped
leap
leapt
leaping

Explanation

The sentence "We saw him ... over a wall as the police approached" requires the correct verb form after "saw him".

  • When verbs follow "see, hear, watch, notice" in an active sentence structure (subject + verb + object), we use either:
    1. The base form (bare infinitive) without "to"We saw him leap over a wall.
    2. The present participle (-ing form) to describe an ongoing actionWe saw him leaping over a wall.

The present participle is used in this case because, it helps to show that the action of "leaping" was an action that was ongoing as the police approached.  

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