confused in the structure of a negative sentence

Question

I make a negative sentence like this:

They are not trying to make me confuse.
or
They are trying not to make me confuse.

What is the difference between these two sentences?

Answer 1

First, your usage of confuse as an intransitive verb is wrong. You can instead do one of:

... to make me confused

... to make me confuse something

... to confuse me

As for the negation, changing the word order changes which part you're negating:

They are not trying to make me confused.

They are trying not to make me confused.

The implication is that (assuming the context is that they are explaining something)

• First example: they don't have the intention to confuse me, but perhaps unintentionally are doing so.
• Second: they are actively trying to explain with as much clarity and as little confusion as possible