Posted by elfan · June 4, 2012 · 1 replies
I've a question.
We know that this sentence (Example),
"You make me happy."
What's the reason that we don't use "be" before "happy"?
Because as I know,
before "adjactive word", we must put "to be or be".
Why is this sentence wrong?
"You make be happy."
Thanks in advance.
There are two possible constructions :
a) make + someone + verb + adjective
b) make + object + adjective
In your example, both constructions are possible, but here, the relevant verb is "feel" not "be". When an adjective already describes a feeling, then you can say either :
a) You make me me feel happy/sad/angry. etc
or just :
b) You make me me happy/sad/angry etc.
But sometimes the adjective describes not a feeling but a quality, like eg important/useless. Notice the difference : if you feel happy, you are happy - but it's possible to feel important/useless etc without really being like that. In this case you must include the verb feel :
a) She makes me feel important/useless
The (b) construction is not possible here.
So, the grammar gives us the possibility to distinguish between the two - what we feel and therefore are, and what we feel but may not in reality be.
