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Verbs - 2002-08-14
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08/14/2002
'let.' Think of this sentence: 'My mother made me clean my room.' It wouldn't be correct to
say 'my mother made me to clean my room.' But it's perfectly correct to say 'my mother
forced me to clean my room,' right?"
AA: "Right, exactly."
BAKER: "So with the verb 'make,' it isn't correct to use the preposition 'to.' Another example
is a structure like this: 'I had the waiter bring me some water.' We use this structure -- I-hadsomeone-do-something-for-me -- in the sense of somebody that we hire in some cases to
do a service for us. So 'I had the plumber fix the leak in my sink' or 'I had the dry cleaner
remove the stain from my silk suit.'
"I think the best way to approach this from the learner's point of view is to think of verbs like
'let' and 'make' and 'have' as exceptions, because the normal pattern would be to include
the preposition 'to.' So once the student is aware of the fact that these verbs don't act like
others, then the student can start kind of paying attention and looking for them when they
listen to the news, when they listen to the radio, when they watch television.
"Another really good way to learn these verbs is to look for them in song lyrics. Think of all
the songs that have 'let' in them: 'Let Me Go,' 'You Made Me Love You.'" (laughter)
MUSIC: "You Made Me Love You"/Judy Garland
BAKER: "So I would tell my students to go to the Internet, because on the Internet you can
find song lyrics, there are thousands of song lyrics on the Internet, and look for your favorite
songs and read the lyrics. You're going to find lots of examples of sentences with 'let' and
'make' and 'have.' And if you start humming those songs in your head, it's really going to
help the student to remember how to use these verbs correctly. Can you think of any
others?"
AA: "Uh ... "
BAKER: "'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,' 'You Make Me Want to Sing,' 'You Make Me
Want to Shout.'" (laughter)
MUSIC: "You Make Me Want to Shout"/Otis Day & the Knights
AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center, part of the University of
California at Los Angeles Extension program. She also writes textbooks for English
learners, available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
And while Lida cannot answer questions personally, send them to us at VOA Wordmaster,
Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site
is voanews.com/wordmaster.
I'm Avi Arditti.
MUSIC: "Shout"