Grammar question

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Reneegianti
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Grammar question

Unread post by Reneegianti »

My student has asked me a question. She had this sentence: The strong man made these things come true. Why is it "come," not "came?" I know that "come" is correct, but how to explain it? Thanks for your help.
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Susan
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by Susan »

Because the expression is "to make something happen". Happen is the base form of the verb and is never conjugated; the verb "make" changes tense.
lenalekka
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by lenalekka »

Reneegianti wrote:My student has asked me a question. She had this sentence: The strong man made these things come true. Why is it "come," not "came?" I know that "come" is correct, but how to explain it? Thanks for your help.
Some verbs like "see, hear, let, make" are always followed by bare infinitive (=infinitive without to)
I saw him cry.
I heard them speak.
She let us go.
He made us laugh.
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cerealkillah
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by cerealkillah »

Not necessarily always. See can be followed by gerund. There is a slight change of meaning then.
"I saw him smoke" (I was there when he took the cigarette, lit it and put it out. I saw the whole "process")
"I saw him smoking" (I happened to walk past him when he was smoking. I didn't see the whole action)
You have to be also careful about passive voice of make or help. In this case they are followed by full infinitive.
A lot of people helped me quit smoking.=I was helped to quit smoking.
hojjat
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by hojjat »

Because in phrasal verbs , we just change the main verb to the past tense
In this case : to make sth come true
The strong man made these things come true
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cerealkillah
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by cerealkillah »

"make sth come true" is not a phrasal verb. It's, as Susan wrote, an expression. In this case a verb (make) followed by an idiom (come true), to be precise.
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saiyada
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Re: Grammar question

Unread post by saiyada »

Because there has been use of past by using made and so there will be only come and not came
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