Hi everyone! This is my first real post that I published on my own website. I hope you enjoy it.
Many people think about one thing about seeing movies. Or should I say “watching”? Here is the question; do we watch a film or see it? Some of you will say “There’s no way we ‘see’ a film we ‘watch’ it.” But these things are not the same. There’s no simple and logical answer to that but at least I can try to let you grasp the basics.
When we query the word “see” on Cambridge Dictionary it gives us bunch of definitions, which is not surprising at all, and the one definition I want to highlight is “to notice people and things with your eyes.” But somewhere deep down the webpage another definition welcomes us, which is “to watch a film, television programme, etc.” Did you see that? When we say “see” in a way we also mean “watch”.
The reason is not complicated
In fact, the most common explanation to this debate is not complicated at all. We “see” a movie in cinema, or we see a play in the theatre, but we “watch” them at home on our very own TVs. The answer to the question why we use it this was is not clear as it may have different reasons.
1. The usage changed as the years go by
Every language is exposed to differences, because we are people, and we are unpredictable. We do not stay without touching everything and changing it. The more a language is spoken the more it will have transformations. In short, some people decided to use them as they are, and it became a thing. A serious thing.
2. Being bound to the context
Seeing something is not something we intentionally do. But we do watch things intentionally. We do not watch TV by accident because it is open and all. We intentionally turn it on and watch something. I know we intentionally “buy” the tickets for a film but it’s not the same. You want clearer answers but nope. You can’t find any.
In the end, we don’t have a specific answer or a whole article written on this but a couple of speculations. This is the most enjoyable part. Try to figure it out yourself. When you are going to watch a film in the cinema, use “see.” I personally don’t think that if you say “watch” people will attack you with pickaxes and shovels. Feel free to use the language as long as you stick to the syntactic rules. It’s not mathematics.