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My question is related to verb and phrases.

I've written the following question and confused whether the sentence is correct or not.

The research on fatal heart attacks and stroke makes physicians believe that obesity is a main common factor in all these incurable health diseases.

Is the above sentence correct?

If it is not correct then please inform the mistakes.

If it is correct then my confusion is as make and believe both are transitive verbs so I'm confused in the role of make and believe and the part of the sentence starting with that.

makes is acting as a transitive verb and physicians as its subject. The part of the sentence after word physicians needs to clarify. Is the phrase "believe that obesity as a main common factor in all these incurable health diseases" is also acting as noun phrase.? or believe is acting as a verb transitive and rest of the part of sentence is acting as a subject for believe?

Can we use two verbs together as a single verb?

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  • @P.E.Dant I edited the question. I'm confused on the usage of make and believe simultaneously in a single sentence as both are transitive verb.
    – Raheel Bari
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 5:12
  • Most importantly, please understand that your example is not a complete sentence in English. That should be addressed first.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 5:48
  • @P.E.Dant It has subject verb and object. It looks to me a complete sentence.
    – Raheel Bari
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 11:40
  • @RaheelBari "that obesity as a main common factor in all these incurable health diseases" doesn't have a verb.
    – Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 12:41

2 Answers 2

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{something} makes a physician believe {something}.

{something} causes a physician to believe {something}.

You can see that the choice of verb (makes, causes) has an impact on the verb form that follows after physician.

In neither case is believe a finite form of the verb, as we can see from the lack of number agreement ("a physician believe").

To take another example:

The interrogators made him confess (the crime).

The interrogators got him to confess (the crime).

I believe "(to) confess (the crime)" is being called a noun clause these days.

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  • Thanks for the detailed response. You make my day. The choice of verb obviously is not good enough. Could you add one more point. Is it allowable to use two verbs in this manner (both are transitive) in any case?.
    – Raheel Bari
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 19:27
  • The initial verb must be of the type of verb that licenses a non-finite object complement consisting of a noun clause. It cannot be just any transitive verb. I urged him to confess would work, or told, implored, begged, entreated, required, hammered, nagged, etc. But I painted him to confess, though transitive, would not do.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 19:36
  • The object complement of such a verb will be an action. They told us to go.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 19:48
  • That is very helpful indeed. What do you say on this sentence. I rewrite the sentence. After years of research on the cases of heart attack and strokes, physicians finds obesity as a common significant factor in such cases. Or After years of research on the cases of heart attack and strokes, physicians finds common significant of obesity in such cases.
    – Raheel Bari
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 20:59
  • After years of research on heart attack and stroke, physicians have found obesity to be a significant factor common to both.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 21:55
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Starting with the given sentance:

  • The research on fatal heart attacks and stroke makes physicians believe that obesity is a main common factor in all these incurable health diseases.

The word choice could be improved.

A person has (or suffers from) a stroke but the research is on strokes. It is not clear whether the research covers non-fatal strokes. It may be better to clarify with ... on fatal heart attacks and fatal strokes .... If the research is on non-fatal strokes and fatal heart attacks then swapping the order may be better, thus: ... on strokes and fatal heart attacks ...

The phrase a main common factor in all may be better as a significant common factor in all or as a significant factor common to all. Although if obesity is the main factor then the phrase the main factor common to all may be correct.

The words incurable health diseases are wrong; I would suggest either incurable health conditions or incurable diseases. You may need a medical expert to distinguish between a condition and a disease.

I would question the use of incurable. Many people recover from heart attacks and strokes and live happily for several decades. This thought makes me wonder about the word fatal. If the research is only about the fatalities then I would replace incurable health diseases with the single word cases. If the research is about all heart attacks and strokes then the sentance might finish with the main factor common to many cases. I wrote many cases because the all in the original applies to the two conditions, not to the people suffering from them.

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  • The choice of words are not good enough. Thankyou for the detail response.
    – Raheel Bari
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 19:19

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