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A couple of hours back, my friend said to me, "you had me believing in the divine compensation."
It still confuses me that why should it not have been like this: you made me believe in the divine compensation.
Is the former correct? How? Had me believing seems odd to me. Please, help.
It's a manner of speaking. It means that you moved the other person into a particular thought pattern, possibly against their will or despite their previous ideas, and in a surprising manner.
An example of using this might be: I watched the movie Superman and it had me believing a man could fly.
There is an idiomatic expression here:
to have someone believing something, in the present, often used with a gerund, Compare that to: to have someone believe something.
He has me believing that he is poor. [present tense]
Yesterday, he had me believing he was rich! [past tense]
Believing him is not easy in any case.
