Difference Between Watch and Warning

The key difference between Watch and Warning is that Watch is primarily used as a verb while Warning primarily used as a noun.

Watch and Warning are two words that are often confused when it comes to their meanings. It is indeed true that both these words differ from each other when it comes to their usage. The word ‘watch’ is primarily used as a verb, and it gives the meaning of ‘observe’. On the other hand the word ‘warning’ is used as a noun, and it gives the meaning of ‘caution’.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What Does Watch Mean
3. What Does Warning Mean
4. Side by Side Comparison – Watch vs Warning in Tabular Form
5. Summary

What Does Watch Mean?

Watch which is primarily used at a verb means to observe.  According to the Oxford dictionary watch means ‘look at or observe attentively over a period of time.’.

Observe the two sentences,

1. Francis watched the movie with interest.

2. Angela watched her friend entering into a shop.

In both the sentences, you can see that the word ‘watch’ is used in the sense of ‘observe’, and hence, the meaning of the first sentence would be ‘Francis observed the movie with interest’, and the meaning of the second sentence would be ‘Angela observed her friend entering into a shop’.

It is interesting to note that the verb ‘watch’ is sometimes used as a noun too as in the sentence

For ex: ‘he had a good watch at the ball’.

In this sentence, the word ‘watch’ is used as a noun.

Furthermore, the word ‘watch’ is sometimes used in hyphenated words such as ‘watch-dog’, ‘night-watchman’ and the like. The past participle form of the verb ‘watch’ is ‘watched’. It is important to know that the verb ‘watch’ is a regular verb.

The word ‘watch’ is sometimes used in the sense of an object noun that indicates time such as wrist watch and the like. This is due to the fact that the time gets observed by means of a watch.

What Does Warning Mean?

Warning is a noun which means to be alert or to be cautious for some liable accident to happen in the near future. Oxford dictionary defines the noun warning as ‘Warning means ‘a statement or event that warns of something or that serves as a cautionary example’.

Observe the two sentences,

1. Robert gave a warning to his students.

2. Andrew took it as a warning.

In both the sentences, you can find that the word ‘warning’ is used in the sense of ‘caution’, and hence, the meaning of the first sentence would be ‘Robert gave a caution to his students’, and the meaning of the second sentence would be ‘Andrew took it as a caution’. This is a very important observation to make when it comes to the usage of the two words, namely, watch and warning.

As a matter of fact, the word ‘warning’ is also used as a verb though it is primarily used as a noun as in the sentence,

For ex: ‘he warns his son of the consequences’. In this sentence, the word ‘warn’ is used as a verb.

However, sometimes the word ‘warning’ is used in the sense of ‘notice’. This is especially true in the case of its usage in sports language as in the sentences,

For ex: ‘The umpire issued a warning to the bowler’.

In this sentence, you can see that the word ‘warning’ is used in the sense of ‘notice’, and hence the meaning of the sentence would be ‘the umpire issued a notice to the bowler’. Moreover, the verb ‘warn’ is also one of the many regular verbs. The verb ‘warn’ has its past participle form as ‘warned’.

What is the Difference Between Watch and Warning?

Summary – Watch vs Warning

Watch and Warning are often misinterpreted. The difference between watch and warning is that watch is primarily used as a verb while warning primarily used as a noun. Therefore, having a sound knowledge on these two words is a necessity when using English language.

Image Courtesy:

1.’US Navy 061217-N-0336C-052 Sailors relax while watching the Christmas movie’By Arturo Chavez (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia 
2.’21119109388′ by George Creal (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr