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I'm trying to figure when we drop the "s" of verbs who refer to the third person singular. It is clear to me that it happens in the subjunctive and with modal verbs. The sentence below doesn't quite fit in any of the cases:

It makes him feel bad.

Why is the s dropped in this case?

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  • 2
    What's the source of that sentence? Are you sure that's what it said exactly?
    – Laurel ♦
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:26
  • 3
    Maybe you mean we write "he feels bad," but "makes him feel bad"?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:38
  • @Laurel the source is a song and not quite the sentece I wrote. It probably should be wrote as Yosef said. The original one is "it makes my head feel like a nightclub", a song from The Vaccines.
    – hellofriends
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 16:44
  • Because "it makes him feels bad" is not grammatical, really. There is only one clause.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 20:50
  • @Lambie two verbs and one clause?
    – hellofriends
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 0:29

1 Answer 1

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It's not a matter of "dropping the s". The finite form (which has -s in the 3rd person singular of the present) is used only when it is the main verb of the clause.

When it is dependent on another verb - modals, "want to", "have to" "make somebody" - the verb is almost always in the base form (traditionally "infinitive"). The only exceptions are after HAVE and BE, when it takes other forms, but still not the finite form.

He feels but he will feel, he must feel, he wants to feel, he ought to feel, make him feel.

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  • English is too hard. Him is the accusative but the object is a new clause where him is also the subject. So...regardless of we having two clauses we only consider the principal one?
    – hellofriends
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 17:00
  • 2
    It the subordinate clause is finite (eg after that, or a relative clause), then its subject will use the subject form of pronouns (eg I think that he feels bad; Somebody who he feels bad about). If it is not finite - whether infinitive (You made him feel bad) participial (I don't like him feeling bad) or nominal ("gerund": The result was him feeling bad) then it doesn't use the subject form.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 17:26
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    English is actually rather easy, if you're not being taught nonsense. Of course too many people teach that. Excessive attention to dying features like inflection, punctuation, and spelling instead of attention to conversation and contraction, not to mention local variations.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 29, 2022 at 21:09
  • "I want to go" is usually divided as the finite verb "want" and the full infinitive "to go". (In other words, not "want to" with a bare infinitive "go".) The same applies for "have to . . ." and others.
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 1:52
  • There are other "exceptions" besides "have" and "be" that take full infinitive dependents. In fact, so many that I wouldn't call them exceptions at all: "ought", "want", "try", "like", etc. (Or am I misunderstanding you?)
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 1:54

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