Question from my student "why it makes it.. not "it makes me"

Question

Hello,So, I have a student who wrote:  “it makes me hard to breathe, sometime. “  I corrected it to “it makes is hard for me to breathe”,  and he’s asking me for the grammatical rule, which I don’t know.  He’s confused by the fact that you can say “it makes me angry”  I understand one is an adjective and the other is an infinitive, but I still would love to know the actual grammatical rule here.Any help appreciated.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

anonymous“it makes it hard for me to breathe, sometimes”,

The problem is not the structure, which is grammatical, but the meaning.

Consider the two sentences.

1. It makes me angry = I am angry (the result)

2. It makes me hard to breathe = I am hard to breathe. (the result) (This is nonsense, of course, unless "I" am water. People die from being forced to breathe water. Still, if "it" refers to some substance that changes air into water, that would work.)

The solution is: I cannot breathe well. = it is difficult (for me) to breathe

It makes it difficult for me to breathe. (It is a bad cold, or something covering the nose and mouth.)

CalifJim · Answer

anonymous I corrected it to “it makes is it hard for me to breathe”

I assume the version above is what you intended.

anonymousgrammatical rule

'make' is a causative verb. It allows several basic grammatical patterns.

to make someone noun They made him their king. / We made them dinner.
to make someone adjective That made me angry. / It made her thirsty.
to make someone verb Jake made us laugh. / Her story made them think.

To these you can add at least one more complicated one, which I think is the one your student was having trouble with. Only a limited number of adjectives allow this construction. The for-phrase is optional.

to make it adjective (for someone) to verb
The fence made it hard (for the thieves) to escape.
The mines on the battlefield made it dangerous (for the troops) to move forward.
The fact that she only spoke Romanian made it inconvenient (for the English students) to ask her questions.
This pillow over my face is making it hard (for me) to breathe.

These come from sentences like these, where you see 'it' as a dummy subject.

It was hard for the thieves to escape.
It was dangerous for the troops to move forward.
It was inconvenient for them to ask questions.
It is hard for me to breathe.

CJ

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Question from my student "why it makes it.. not "it makes me"

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