Thread: making it look like

We'll get the desktop support team to recover your machine from a backup, remove your CD drive to reduce the risk of this happening again, have Ron's legs broken - after making it look like an accident - and forget this ever happened."

Why "look" not "looks"?

"..after making it look like an accident.." refers to a (possible) future event.

"...looks like.." would be used to refer to an event that has happened. Example: 'It looks like it was an accident.'

I hope I've helped,

Joe

I'm going to suggest a rule:

Whenever there are two verbs in a single clause in English, the second is always in the base form or the infinitive.

I want to go
He has to eat

They might say

He made him run

etc.

Any exceptions? I believe something similar holds in Russian, after e.g. dolzhen, khochu etc. etc. May well be true for all European/Indo-European languages but now I'm just guessing..

Слова «it» и «look» здесь не образуют пару «подлежащее в третьем лице со сказуемым», поэтому и окончание «-s» тут ни к чему. Слово «it» больше связано со словом «making» (насколько я помню из школьного курса «it» здесь — это дополнение), чем с «look», а слово «look» стоит как-бы в инфинитиве: «after making it (to) look like»

Originally Posted by alexei

We'll get the desktop support team to recover your machine from a backup, remove your CD drive to reduce the risk of this happening again, have Ron's legs broken - after making it look like an accident - and forget this ever happened."

Why "look" not "looks"?

Есть такой оборот - make something/somebody do something (заставить что-то (кого-либо) сделать что-то).

Например:

Make him come here - "Сделай так, чтобы он пришёл сюда" (или "Заставь его прийти сюда").

Ты же не станешь по-русски говорить "Заставь его приходит сюда". В английском аналогичная ситуация.

I get it. I knew these constructions "I want you to write a letter", "he makes her cry" etc, but I didn't notice it in that sentence for some reason, probably because of the progressive tense (making). Thanks to all of you!