Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-usage><word-meaning>
Title: Can "Nightmare" be seen?
Question: I know what nightmare means,it is bad dream during sleeping.I would like know how we experience it. Do we see it, my sentence make sense?   Last night I've seen very bad nightmare.

Answers:
sents: text: It may sound boring, but the verb we most often associate with nightmare is simply have .
text: Last night I had a nightmare.
text: You can see the prevalence of this usage in this Ngram .
text: This other Ngram shows the most common words that are put in front of "a nightmare.
text: " Most are prepositions; the top verbs are had and was .
text: I'm guessing most of those uses of was
text: are probably more figurative usages of the word, such as:
text: My relationship with Chuck was a nightmare.
text: I can't believe it took me so long to dump him.
text: or: That project was a nightmare!
text: We were over a year late and a million dollars over budget.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/113/J.R.
score: 25
sents: text: Last night I've seen very bad nightmare.
text: You might say you "saw something in a dream" , or a nightmare.
text: But when speaking about just generally experiencing it, you would say you "had a bad dream" or "had a nightmare" .
text: You would not say "Last night I saw a bad dream", nor "Last night I saw a nightmare" when referring to the experience of dreaming.
text: The only way you would say "Last night I saw a nightmare" would be if you were speaking figuratively--that while awake, you'd seen something that was very bad--as if it were from a nightmare.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/9598/HostileFork says dont trust SE
score: 8
sents: text: You 'see' nightmares and dreams because a dream (or a nightmare) is like a movie, played by our sub-conscience.
text: So yes, we "see" dreams and nightmares.
text: I'm not an expert on that, however, I can help you with the sentence construction.
text: I'm afraid your sentence is incorrect, try: Last night I saw a bad dream.
text: Also, 'nightmares' are negative dreams.
text: So you don't have to mention 'bad' along with it.
text: It becomes redundant.
text: Optionally, you could also say: Last night I saw a nightmare.
text: But when we talk about dreams and nightmares, you generally use "had" .
text: I had a dream.
text: As Martin Luther Kings said: "I have a dream.." and not
text: "I see a dream.."
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/27122/Varun Nair
score: 2
sents: text: One thing missing from the answers is the point that "seeing" implies perception with one's eyes.
text: Since phenomena such as dreams, visions, hallucinations and nightmares are perceived with the mind's "eye" (a misleadingly corporealized abstraction), "seeing" does not apply.
text: That said, a sentence like "I see nightmares in my waking life."
text: is perfectly valid (syntactically and semantically), however, as someone above mentioned, that usage of "nightmare" is figurative and the implication is that you see (with your eyes)
text: material things/scenes that have a nightmarish quality.
text: So the rule still holds.
text: On rereading the above answers, I realize that Varun KN was alluding to this point but didn't quite get there.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/31225/TheIconoclast
score: 2
sents: text: You can't say you saw a dream or a nightmare but could suggest that the dream had a visual element by saying I had a very vivid dream last night
text: Here is the definition I am thinking of:
text: vivid: producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/30978/JavaLatte
score: 1
sents: text: A nightmare is more than visuals.
text: It's an experience, as you say.
text: Therefore, besides the already mentioned I had a nightmare,
text: you can also say I experienced a nightmare.
text: A number of words fit in this category, e.g. endure can also be used here.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/31268/rubenvb
score: 1
sents: text: I know what nightmare means,it is bad dream during sleeping.
text: I would
text: like know how we experience it.
text: Do we see it, my sentence make sense?
text: In proper English:
text: I know what the word "nightmare" means ...
text: it is a bad dream.
text: [Dreams occur while sleeping, so there's no need to mention that.]
text: I would like to know how to refer to the experience:
text: Do we see it?
text: Does that sentence make sense?
text: Answer:
text: In English, we talk about having experiences.
text: we have dreams and nightmares, accidents, lucky breaks, epiphanies, realizations, etc.
text: We talk about seeing the content of dreams and nightmares, e.g., "I had a nightmare in which I saw monsters eating people alive."
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4199/Jim Balter
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
The verb we most often associate with nightmare is simply "to have". When speaking about experiencing it, you would say you "had a bad dream"  or  "had a nightmare" . However,  you might say you  "saw something in a dream"  or a nightmare.  
Have' is more appropriate than 'see'.