Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[snd2tsy]

Dear,

What should I use to fill in the blanks for the underneath questions ?

1) That day, the robber made the hostage _______ (tie) me up.
2) I made her __________ (cry) yesterday.

I know the answer. I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. Would anyone please help?


Thanks

[alan.es]

I think you need to accept that language has developed in strange and mysterious ways - there's not always a logical reason for it.

There are two frequently-used verbs, make and let , which take the infinitive form ( i.e. without 'to' or '-ing' ) of any following secondary verb.

The verb, help, also does this but can also take the infinitive ( with 'to' ).

This is the 'rule' if you like to call it that but it's just the way English has developed. If anyone can give a logical reason, I would be interested to know it.

[snd2tsy]

Dear Alan.es

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I never expect there would be an almost instant respond that I didn't check for it.

So, in simple, you mean both 1) and 2) should be tie and cry respectively and I should treate "make" and "let" in a special way that whenever I encounter them I should use Simple Present Tense for the verb following them?

Thanks

[timtom]

Here is a page that has English irregular verbs and their conjugations:
http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html
I don't know if it is a full list, but it is probably pretty close and it gives descriptions of when people use one past tense in one situation (or country) and a different form in a different situation (or country).

-TimTom

[alan.es]

snd2tsy, the answer is yes, 'make' and 'let' are two verbs which take the 'Simple Present Tense' as you've said but I prefer to call it the 'infintive form' of the verb.

Infinitive : to cry e.g. She wanted to cry

infinitive form : cry e.g. He made her cry

Gerund : crying e.g. She continued crying


'make' and 'let' are the only two frequently used verbs which take the infinitive form as a complement.


'help' can take either the infinitive form or the infinitive without a change in meaning.

He helped her dry her eyes
He helped her to dry her eyes.

Each of the sentences means exactly the same as the other.

I've never seen a logical reason given for why these three verbs should be different. It's just the way the language has been used and developed over the years.

[eslRC]

Here's a little more information about make and let:
http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/let.html
You can read the explanation, then try the exercises (if you're in the mood to do so).

[lotus]

Hi snd2tsy,

Here's another link with information on causative verbs.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm#causative_verbs


--lotus