At some point, someone may have told you that you should never use I seen, that it was a construction only uneducated people use. Perhaps they suggested that you use I saw or I have seen instead.
How to use seen
You see, seen is the past participle form of to see, and we use the past participle when communicating in the present perfect tense, which refers to an unspecified point in time.
Consider these two examples:
- I saw the movie.
- I have seen the movie.
The first example is in the simple past. We’d use it to refer to a specific moment: in this case, perhaps we saw the movie on Friday.
The second example is in the present perfect, and it wouldn’t communicate a specific point in time. We’d use this if we wanted to communicate that we had seen the movie but that when we saw it was irrelevant.
Notice the difference in usage between the two examples? Example #2 uses a helper (or auxiliary) verb to help create the present perfect tense.
And that’s where the confusion comes in. If I had written, “I seen the movie”, there is no helper verb. Its construction mirrors that of the simple past, but uses the present perfect form instead.
Is I seen wrong?
Back to the first paragraph. Were the people who told you to never use I see right? Well, sort of.
I seen is certainly—uh—seen as non-standard and even uneducated. It’s often used to portray AAVE or Southern American stereotypes.
Interestingly, however, the usage has been around longer than either the accent of the Deep South or AAVE.
The earliest known recording I could find of I seen was from a 1733 edition of a 1620 translation of Don Quixote:
I am she, which sometime immured within the Limits of Honesty, did lead a most contented Life, until it opened the Gates of her Recollection and Weariness, though to thine Importunity, and seeming just and amorous Requests, and render’d up the keys of her Liberty, a Grief by thee so ill recompenced, as the finding myself in so remote a Place as this, wherein you have met with me, and I seen you, may clearly testify
Cervantes, M. (1733). The history of the valorous and witty knight-errant Don Quixote of the Mancha. (Shelton & Blunt, Trans.). Dublin: Bookfellers. (Original work published 1620)
One could argue that this usage mirrors I have seen rather than I saw, but there are still examples of the I saw pattern in the 18th century:
Metcalf took it for granted that his companion had seen one of these [will-o-the-wisps] but for good reasons declined asking him whereabout the light was; and to divert his attention from this object, asked him, “Do you not see two lights; one to the right the other to the left?” “No,” replied the gentleman; “I seen but one light, that there on the right.”—“Well then, Sir,” said Metcalf, “that is Harrogate.”
Metcalf, J. (1795). The life of John Metcalf, commonly called blind Jack of Knaresborough. York:E. & R. Peck.
In this example, the person isn’t portrayed as an uneducated bumpkin, but as a “gentleman”.
Here are a few more, but from the turn of the 19th century:
- Plebeian Politics, or The Principles and Practices of Certain Mole-Eyed Maniacs Vulgarly Called Warrites (1801)
- Clan-Albin: A National Tale (1815)
- Trial of Frederick Eberle and Others, at a Nisi Prius Court, Held at Philadelphia, July 1816 (1817)
In these examples, the first is from England, the second from Ireland, and the third from the United States.
While it’s unclear where the usage came from, what is clear is that it likely didn’t originate in the United States, let alone in the South or among Black Americans. And the linguist Anatoly Liberman agrees:
The origin of grammatical phenomena is no easier to trace than the origin of words and idioms. So few things are certain in the history of I been/seen/done that it may be useful to mention them at once. I been and the rest are not imports from Black English (though some people think so) and they are not Americanisms (as most people believe).
So what’s the point of all this?
The point? Well, I guess it’s that while I seen is generally regarded as incorrect, it has a usage history of over 200 years. And while we know very little of its origin, we do know that it didn’t begin in the United States, and it may have been used by people from various walks of life.
If you use I seen regularly, realize that you have some established, transatlantic precedence behind your usage. However, don’t expect widespread acceptance of your usage.
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