Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[elysium]

Hello, everyone.
I have a favor to ask. Can you help me?

When I studied English, I ran into the sentence like this.

"What has caused the market to fall?"

I think I know the meaning but it raised a question.

Is it possible to write a sentence like this?

"What has the market caused to fall?"

If it is possible, I think the meaning becomes totally different from the former one. Then what's the meaning of the latter sentence? Please help me find the answer for this.

Thank you in advance and look forward to your kind help.

[Lorikeet]

"What has caused the market to fall?" is asking why the prices on the stock market are falling. It could be because of bad economic news--housing starts are down, unemployment is up, etc.

"What has the market caused to fall?" is asking what other things has the stock market caused to fall. I have never heard this question. I don't know if the stock market causes things to fall. Maybe you could say the decline in the stock market caused people's expectations of good financial times to fall. I also don't know how the stock market and the bond market are related. One might cause the other to go up or down.