Learn English – We can see the shrine “become/becomes” big

grammarsubordinate-clausesterminologyverb-agreement

I'm correcting some writing and the student wrote,

We can see the shrine become big, little by little, from the ferry.

As far as I'm concerned, it's grammatically okay, but I'm having trouble explaining why it shouldn't be 'becomes big'. For the life of me I couldn't find the correct way to refer to the grammar involved here. Also, I feel like becoming bigger or getting bigger might convey her meaning more accurately, but that become big still gets a pass. Am I right?

I appreciate any help you can give me.

Best Answer

I think "bigger" might sound better because size is more suited to relative adjectives. It also perhaps better matches the sense of gradual change in the sentence.

We can see the shrine become bigger, little by little, from the ferry.

... sounds fine to me. Whether to use "become" or "becoming" doesn't seem an issue of correctness.