decades of rapid economic progress has seen China develop

[felixwong33]

More than three decades of rapid economic progress has seen China develop into a rich and powerful country with many poor people, which is not an ideal governing model for such a huge country in the long term. It’s time for the central government to seriously review and improve the basic wages of workers.


Is it wrong(the highlighted part)? Pls comment.

 

[cuchuflete]

Please review the forum rules, with special attention to the part about thread titles.

Please read the English Only Forum Guidelines , with attention to the parts about abbreviations and standard language. [Pls is not a word in the English language.]


It is not wrong. Think of it as "an extended period of time has seen China develop..."

"More than three decades of xxxxxx" is a single, loosely defined time interval.

 

[felixwong33]

Thanks for your reminder.

But why we don't need to add an "s" in the word "develop"? (i.e. develops)

 

[Cagey]

Thanks for your reminder.

But why we don't need to add an "s" in the word "develop"? (i.e. develops)

We say "China develops [into a rich country]" when China is the subject of the main clause, but "has seen China develop" when the verb [develop] is part of what has been seen.

An aside: Personally, I would prefer "decades ... have seen", though I agree that "has" can be justified grammatically.

 

[felixwong33]

Thanks Cagey. But I just don't understand what the subject for the verb "develop" is.

 

[Cagey]

China is the subject.

Normally, when we say the sentence on its own, we say;

China develops into a rich country.
​

But when this is the object of 'seen', we say

[Something] has seen China develop into a rich country.​