I want to ask the following
Who is the person that you made cry?
It sounds a bit awkward to ask like this
Who did you make cry?
Would it be correct?
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Just to be clear, you made someone else cry, or someone made you cry?– AndrewJul 12, 2018 at 17:58
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I am asking someone who he/she made cry– RyepowerJul 12, 2018 at 18:03
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1Yes, "Who did you make cry?" is the normal construction. I agree that it sounds a little awkward (and I will let someone else explain why it might not be technically correct) but it's probably the most normal way to say it.– stangdonJul 12, 2018 at 18:11
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2 Answers
Both of your sentences rely on the pattern make someone|something {verb}
The news made her leap for joy.
The heat made the chocolate melt.
You made someone cry.
Who is the person (that) you made cry?
Who did you make cry?
Your one question uses the did + bare infinitive form of the past tense. The other uses the simple past made.
Both are idiomatic, and both would be perfectly natural given the proper conversational context. To my ear, the second one sounds more natural than the first. It is more direct, less verbose, and the syntax is used quite often. It is not a rare usage by any means.
While it does sound a little awkward, it is the correct construction. Perhaps it sounds odd only because a more common situation would be to ask "Who made you cry?"
You can tell when someone has been crying, so it is natural to ask the reason. But you can't tell that someone has made another person cry, so the context is less likely to arise.
I can imagine a conversation:
Son: I got a detention for making one of the girls cry at school today.
Father: Who did you make cry!? What did you do to her!?
Son: I just said ...
