0

The roast beef made everybody's mouth water.

The roast beef made every mouth to water.

In the first example, the word 'water' is a plain verb (bare infinitive). Generally, we take bare infinitives when we use make as causative verb. But I have read this second example, too. In this 2nd example, there is the use of infinitive (base verb with to) instead of bare infinitive (base verb without to). Is this due to the difference of word case that we take after the causative verb make? If it's so, are there any other examples?

Improve this question
4
  • 5
    Make someone to do something is an obsolete usage and not something you need to learn. An example that springs to mind - "He made the lame to run" (from a hymn written in the 17th century).
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 23 at 14:06
  • 1
    @KateBunting - sorry I deleted my comment because I couldn't find an example. I thought I was going mad or something! Well done for finding that! It's definitely obsolete or antiquated, and not idiomatic in modern English.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Oct 23 at 14:08
  • 1
    To the OP. Do you have a quote reference where you found a construction like the second example? It might help us explain the usage better.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Oct 23 at 14:11
  • Compare Psalm 23 KJV
    – TimR
    Commented Oct 23 at 16:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

I think you may be mistaken about the word "water". Mouth watering is an idiom that means salivate. To salivate is a verb - likewise watering is a verb. So, "the roast beef made everybody's mouth water" means that it caused the mouths to water.

Your alternative "made every mouth to water" sounds like 'water' is a noun. It sounds like the mouths turned to water, which is not the intention of the saying. I'm wondering if you read it as a noun because you can sometimes infer one noun becomes another in similar constructions, like "practice makes amateurs experts", for example.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .