Watch, See, and Look at
Do you look at a person or watch a person? Do you look at a movie or watch a movie?
Both 'look at' and 'watch' mean that we turn our attention to something.
If you look at a picture, you keep your attention on the picture.
Your brain thinks about what you see.
If you watch a movie, you see it with your eyes, too.
But do we look at movies? No, we don't.
Let's find out the difference between 'look at' and 'watch' once and for all.
When you look at something, that 'something' isn't moving.
You can look at a picture, an animal or a building.
I looked at a beautiful photo.
Looking at something which is moving is a short action, like a glance.
You just see this person, and then look at something else.
Somebody came into the room and I looked at that person.
I looked for a short time and went back to reading.
When we look at something which is moving for a loooong time (such as a movie), we watch it.
I watched my child playing in the garden.
I sat there and watched for a long time.
I watched a great movie.
The movie was long, it was moving, and I concentrated on it for a long time – so we use 'watch'.
When we say 'see', it means that our eyes sent a signal to our brain.
I saw a butterfly.
I didn't concentrate on it, it flew by and I saw it.
My eyes registered its existence and my brain cells got this information.
What can you see right now?
Are you looking at the text of this podcast?
What's the last movie you watched?
