38
votes
Why is "John makes Bob looks short." wrong?
*John makes Bob looks short.
make is a causative verb. langeek explains:
The structure of making this type of causative is as follows: Subject + Causative Verb + Object + non-finite clause
A non-...
- 7,780
15
votes
Why is "John makes Bob looks short." wrong?
The expression make someone V takes the unmarked infinitive form of the verb. It is similar to many others: compare
John makes his son do his homework.
John watches his son play baseball.
John helps ...
- 5,881
3
votes
“the room whose door is broken” vs “the room which door is broken”?
This one catches natives all the time.
'Whose' is correct but feels wrong. We don't have a 'whiches' to match, but 'which' is definitely wrong too. In speech, no-one cares, really, but when written, ...
- 16.8k
3
votes
“the room whose door is broken” vs “the room which door is broken”?
The room with the broken door ...
Sounds better.
- 3,156
3
votes
What do you think the reasons to not buy a car are (which) Jack has?
Sometimes, with questions and inverted sentences and lots of phrases, it helps to "build the sentence back up" from something simpler.
What does Jack have?
What reasons does Jack have?
What ...
- 10.6k
2
votes
Is "it" grammatically incorrect in "The chair was too small for him to sit on it"?
It does seem at first glance that the question rotates around resumptive pronouns, but there is a grammatical distinction that we have to take note of before pounding the gavel.
The version without ...
- 134
2
votes
Is "it" grammatically incorrect in "The chair was too small for him to sit on it"?
There's nothing syntactically wrong with repeating the subject (optionally, using a pronoun), but in OP's specific example doing so would be stylistically poor. But consider...
1: The chair was too ...
- 68.9k
1
vote
ambiguous relative clause '' who ''?
This is a poorly constructed sentence. You could probably create a context in which it would be valid, but it would be unusual.
I think your question is about the "who" part. So if you ...
- 5,835
1
vote
What do you think the reasons to not buy a car are (which) Jack has?
None of the proposed sentences are idiomatic. They are all awkward and unnecessarily verbose. That doesn't mean the OP's sentences are incomprehensible or so nonsensical that a native speaker wouldn't ...
- 26.2k
1
vote
Why is "John makes Bob looks short." wrong?
I am not at all a linguist, but I am bilingual (a native speaker of English who learned Spanish in their 20s), and I suspect that the easiest explanation to understand for speakers of other European ...
- 11
1
vote
Accepted
Correct usage of 'nostalgia'
nostalgia
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nostalgia
a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in
one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends;
a ...
- 124
1
vote
What's the difference between "Spain's fastfood consumption" and "the consumption of fastfood in Spain"?
There isn't really any significant difference between your two examples, any more than there is a difference between "my father's son" and "the son of my father". Spain's fast food ...
- 96.3k
1
vote
Is "Please be submitted" grammatical?
"Please be [adjective phrase]" is a polite command. It instructs the person or persons addressed to put themselves in the state of [adjective phrase].
Please be seated.
Please be quiet.
...
- 121k
1
vote
Is "Please be submitted" grammatical?
The traditional wording for a covering letter with a document is Please find enclosed..., or for an electronic submission please find attached..., but that is rather old-fashioned and formal. You can ...
- 49.5k
1
vote
How to parse “That is ADJ which VP”?
Here Günther is contrasting the words common and mutual. The excerpt “That is common which X” can be paraphrased as any of
That which X can be called common
Things that X rate description as common
...
- 5,881
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible