Learn English – Is “I’ve seen a lot (of them) using…” grammatical without the object

grammaticality

During a conversation about programming, I meant to say:

I've seen a lot of programmers using that pattern.

I accidentally omitted the object and wrote:

I've seen a lot using that pattern.

For some reason that doesn't sound wrong to me. From context it is clear that I'm talking about software engineers without explicitly mention them, thus I don't need it for understanding. Quite the contrary, it would even be fine without repetition.

However, is that sentence OK without the object or should I use one of the following sentences?

I've seen a lot of them using that pattern.

I've often seen the use of that pattern.

Best Answer

Your original sentence as is would be naturally interpreted as:

I've seen a lot (of people) using that pattern.

So grammatically, you don't really need to add anything (such as the pronoun "them") to it. But context matters. You also said though that "from the context it's clear that I'm talking about software engineers." So that takes care of it.

It is reasonable to use active voice, but if you decide to use passive voice (slightly shifting the focus or emphasis) you'd write:

I've often seen that pattern (being) used.
I've seen that pattern used a lot.
I've often seen the use of that pattern.

Related Topic