Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Chan-Seung Lee]

[Christine123]

The first, third, and fifth sentences do not make sense.

The second sentence does make sense, but I am curious if it is the message you want to convey. The second sentence tells me that he got someone else to trip her while she was on the street. He did not trip her himself. The reason this sentence conveys this is the use of the verb "HAD" followed by the pronoun "HER." Whenever you have the verb "to have (something done) followed by a pronoun or noun, it means that someone else did the action for you. Remember the verb "to have" can mean many things. In this case, the verb "HAD" is acting as the past tense of the infinitive verb "to have (something done)." If you were to flip the pronoun "HER" with the verb "tripped," so the sentence would read "He had tripped her on the street," then "HAD" becomes a past participle describing the verb "tripped." Now the sentence conveys that He, himself, tripped her on the street. It is confusing because "HAD" remains as the same word and spelling in its past tense and past participle form, as well as when there are semantical differences.

The first and third sentences do not make sense because "fall" is an action someone does themselves, not what you do to them. Your actions can make someone fall, but they are the one who is doing the falling, so you cannot fall them.

Also, in the third sentence, the past tense of "fall" is fell," not "felled."

The fourth sentence makes sense, but with the use of the word "down," it can be interpreted many ways. If you are trying to convey that he made her fall, it is best to just use the word "fall."

Hope that helps!