Anonymous  +  150182 Fri, 21 Oct 05 10:59 AM I know that most verbs take infinitive while some take bare infinitive, e.g. I allow her to go.   - but - I let her go. (not to go) Can anyone think of any reason why such irregularity exists? Thanks. Ricky Anonymous Verbs

	pieanne  +  150201 Fri, 21 Oct 05 11:33 AM I think here "let" is a modal auxiliary, and except for "ought to", they are followed by a bare infinitive. You'll find the same construction after "help", "make" (causative), and perhaps others, but I don't know the explanation for it, just that it's a grammar rule    pieanne Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 South of France ...But I'm Belgian! Veteran Member 7,517 I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos... Grammar, Constructions, Auxiliaries, Modals, Modal Auxiliaries

	paco2004  +  151423 Tue, 25 Oct 05 05:42 AM Hello Anon "Let" is one of causative verbs that take the construct of [<verb> <sb> <do>]. "Have"and "make" belong to the same class of causative verbs. "Allow", "cause", "force", "get", and "permit" are also causative verbs, but they take the construct of [<verb> <sb> <to do>]. "Help" is also kind of causative verb and it can be used either way. paco [PS] Pieanne, I think we had better not to take "let" as a modal auxiliary, because we can say like "You can let your son play in the backyard". paco2004 Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004 Senior Member 4,095 In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English. Verbs, Auxiliaries, Modals, Modal Auxiliaries

	pieanne  +  151519 Tue, 25 Oct 05 11:57 AM I see your point, Paco, thanks    Yet, I don't understand "let" as "causative"... Why not say it's a transitive verb (synonym of "allow") that requires a bare infinitive? But I'm not a grammar pro...   pieanne Grammar, Verbs, Synonyms

	paco2004  +  151542 Tue, 25 Oct 05 01:19 PM  Pieanne wrote: Why not say it's a transitive verb (synonym of "allow") that requires a bare infinitive? But I'm not a grammar pro... True. "Let" is certainly a transitive verb that requires a bare infinitive. I myself don't know the exact definition of "causative verbs". Please give me a time to ponder about it. paco paco2004 Grammar, Verbs, Synonyms

	rishonly  +  151666 Tue, 25 Oct 05 06:49 PM Hi Paco2004, In the given context, I wonder if we can say "Please give me some time.." instead of  "Please give me a time". rishonly Joined on Sat, Mar 5 2005 KUMBAKONAM,INDIA Contributing Member 1,782 Regards, Krishna

	paco2004  +  151682 Tue, 25 Oct 05 08:06 PM Hello Krish I googled “Please give me a / some time to ..”. “Please give me a time to …” hits 137 pages and “Please give me some time to …” hits 575 pages. The pages using the former appear to be written by non-native English speakers. So maybe you are right and I was wrong. A more idiomatic expression will be “Please give me time to …”. It hits 23,000 pages. Anyway thank you for the kind comment. paco paco2004

	CalifJim  +  153928 Tue, 01 Nov 05 03:58 PM No.  "want" is not causative.  No matter how hard you want something, you can't thereby make it so. One of the fancier names for verbs like "want" is "desiderative verb"! CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,463 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Verbs