a. These feats have helped her make the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
b. These feats have helped make her the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
Is the sentence (a) grammatically wrong? Then, why?
English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communitya. These feats have helped her make the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
This sentence implies that the woman in question created the most successful woman in American ski racing history (so her is NOT the most successful woman in American ski racing history). For example, she is such a good ski instructor that one of her students became the most successful woman in American ski racing history. Even so, if this really was the context you were going for, you don't usually make a person. A better-suited word might be train.
b. These feats have helped make her the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
This is probably what you wanted to say. It means that the woman in question is, herself, the most successful woman in American ski racing history and her feats "made her" that. In other words, her = most successful woman in American ski racing history.
a. These feats have helped her make the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
b. These feats have helped make her the most successful woman in American ski racing history.
Both sentences are grammatically correct but have different meanings.
In A. "She" made the most successful woman. Perhaps "she" is the coach and she "made" a champion skier.
In B. "She" is the most successful woman. She is the most successful skier and the feats are the what qualifies her as the most successful skier.