Accusative Constructions

The Accusative Constructions are made of a noun or a pronoun in Accusative

and an infinitive or participle verb (present or past): which are in a predicative
report.
Example: I noticed them shake hands.

1. The Accusative with the Infinitive:

The verbs which are usually followed by an Accusative with an Infinitive are the
following:
a) Perceptive verbs: see, hear, watch, feel, notice, perceive, observe.
Example: Did anyone see Mary leave the house?
b) Cognitive verbs: Think, know, consider, expect, suppose, believe,
imagine, fancy, understand.
Examples: They knew the man to have been very ill.
A lot of people supposed her to be right.
c) Verbs which express desire or intention: want, wish, desire, intend, mean.
Examples: She wanted me to explain the rule.
Did she mean me to go there in her place?
d) Verbs which express feelings: like, dislike, love, hate, prefer.
Examples: I should like them to keep their promise.
I hate you to be troubled.
e) Verbs which express orders or permissions: command, order, request,
allow, compel, force.
Examples: Our teacher allowed us to go to the conference.
The officer ordered his soldiers to advance.
f) Causative verbs: cause, make, have, get, induce, let.
Examples: What makes you think so?
Get them come as early as possible!
REMARK: With these verbs the accusative is followed by short infinitive (the
infinitive without to).
g) Declarative verbs: declare, pronounce, report, usually when the subject is
animated.
Examples: Everyone reported him to be good for this job.
They declared the chief engineer to be a member of their committee.

h) Some prepositional verbs: count on, depend on, wait for, hope for, etc.
Examples: We cannot wait for the weather change.
2. The FOR-TO Infinitive
The Accusative and the Infinitive is used after the verbs mentioned above but it
may also appear after an adjective or a noun, being preceded by the preposition
for.
Examples: It was unusual for him to write such a long letter.
It was madness for them to leave in such weather.
There are also some verbs which can be used with for-to infinitive: arrange, ask,
hope, long, plan, pray, provide, ring, send, telephone, wait, etc.
They arranged/planned/sent for her to come.

3. The Accusative with the Present Participle

The construction is similar with the Accusative and Infinitive, the difference
residing in the aspect of the verbal action: the infinitive conveys the action as
finished or it only mentions the action while the present participle presents it in
progress.
Examples:
I heard them come.(It means that they have arrived)
I heard them coming.( I heard them making noise while they were coming).
The Accusative with The Present Participle is used after :
 a) Verbs which express sensorial perception: see, hear, smell, feel, watch,
notice, observe.
Examples: I heard the children talking about their holidays.
b) Find, leave, set, catch, send:
Examples: I found him mending the radio.

4. The Accusative with the Past Participle

This construction is used after:
a) Verbs which express sensorial perception.
Example: He heard his name mentioned.
b) Verbs which express an order.
Example: He ordered it finished.
c) Causative verbs: have and get.
Example: I must have these shoes repaired.