IELTS Grammar: test it with an easier sentence

If you're unsure about a bit of grammar, see what happens when you look at it in a much easier sentence. I'll demonstrate this with an example.

A student asked me this question:

Should we write "Companies A and B saw waste output fall" or "Companies A and B saw waste output fell"?

I told the student to consider an easier example:

Do we say "I saw him go" or "I saw him went"?

Hopefully the easy example above makes the grammar point much clearer. "Companies A and B saw waste output fall" and "I saw him go" are of course correct.

Comments

[L]

Thank you so much Simon. Very useful lesson.

[Comma]

Hi Simon

I have a question regarding to EOR and hope you would help me .
I am took ielts at 8 October, unfortunatly my speaking band score is 5.5 which I need band score 6 so I enquire to remark .

At 4 January I received a email and inform me my band score of speaking was changed and will increase one or more band score. However , when I received my new test report I found my band score was remain unchanged.
I had called to my local British council and they said they can't help. So Simon would you advice me how to do to update my band score and I would like to complain the council about they attitude.

Simon , it is very important to me to increase the band score and I need the new test report very urgently hope you would help me.

Best regards
Comma

[sjm]

Comma

This sounds extremely unusual so there is probably more to the story. Has IELTS explained to you why the email you received is different to your new test report?

[Simon]

Comma,

Have you tried replying to the email that was sent to inform you the your score had changed?

[Thao]

Hi Simon,

I am still confused about this grammar point. I was taught that, in reported speech, if the reported verb is in the past, we have to change the other verb. So according to that, it should be 'I saw him went'. May I ask if this is an exception or it was because of the verb 'to see'? Thank you, Simon!