'suture

Question

1.Doctor made some sutures on his head.2.Doctor did some sutures on his head.  A man was injured as a consequence of falling down from the stairs.Would you use 'make' or 'do' in this context?Do you say 'stitches' instead of suture?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

1.Doctor made some sutures on his head.

2.Doctor did some sutures on his head.

A man was injured as a consequence of falling down the stairs.

Would you use 'make' or 'do' in this context? Neither. I'd say The doctor gave him some stitches or the doctor put some stitches in his head or, informally, the doctor stitched his head up.

Do you say 'stitches' instead of suture? 'Stitches' is more common.

Best wishes, Clive

Rex · Answer

Clive
You can climb a tower. Then you can fall down.

So Clive fell down from the tower.

By the same token, you can fall down from the stairs.
It is not clear to me why you dislike the my way of writing.

Mr Patrick · Answer

I don't think Clive needs any help with this, but I'll add my vote nonetheless...

Rex,

You can say he fell down the stairs, and I would also agree to say that he fell on the stairs. If you were talking about a construction worker, he might even have fallen off the stairs (provided he went over in some lateral way).

Of course, English will almost always provide a suitable context for any combination of words. So please don't mind if I get a bit humorous here:

Architect: Hey, there's an unconscious worker lying on the ground floor. Where did he fall down from?

Builder: Must have fallen down from that stair we're putting in four floors above.

Regards, Patrick

Rex · Answer

1. You climbed a tower.

2. Accidently you fell down.

I would say you fell down from the tower.

If police came to the scene. People will tell the police a man has fallen from the tower.

It doesn't make sense to say a man has fallen the tower.

Anonymous · Answer

We don't always have to quote the New York Times to get a look at how the language is used by native speakers. Below is a heartwarming story of a team of firefighters (firemen), who almost..........wait, I'll let them tell their own story!

“The relay, we believe, is the most important event,” Paterson began. “It’s very team oriented. We had relied heavily on that aspect of the competition.
“Unfortunately, we had another mess-up. A flashlight fell off the tower and that disqualified us. We were completely disheartened by that.”
Although the team always refuses to blame any one person for a mistake, Paterson said he had a hard time knowing it was his flashlight that fell off and he wanted to fix it.
“I begged and pleaded with the officials to get us back into the competition, to let us reregister on a wild card day. I even offered to pay for it out of my own pocket. But they wouldn’t budge.
“They did say, though, if we volunteered to help out on the course during the competition, we could reregister.”

On a much more serious note, the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has this to say:

Painter Dies After 80-Foot Fall From Electrical Transmission Tower In Indiana

It was necessary to disconnect the lanyards to change position. The painters would tie off again when they were repositioned. The crew had progressed 40 feet down the side of the tower. The victim disconnected his lanyard and attempted to move when he lost his balance and fell from the tower, 80 feet to the ground. The three remaining crew members descended the tower and one ran to a nearby farmhouse to tell the owners to call the emergency medical service (EMS).

All I can suggest is that you perform similar searches with for the expressions with stairs put forward by Clive and myself. You will find that they are much more common than the one you propose. I believe this has to to with the fact that often the injuries that result form such accidents are caused by the serial impact on each step, whereas the injuries caused by a fall from a tower are exclusively attributed to the hard landing on the ground.

Clive · Answer

Hi Rex,

These kinds of expressions can be tricky. Here's what these suggest to me.

He fell down the stairs. He fell, hit the various steps of the stairs several times, and finally landed on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

He fell down from the stairs. He was on the stairs and he fell, coming straight down as if from a tower. This suggests to me that he fell from the side of an open stairway, since he came vertically down. The 'down' is usually omitted, since the word 'fall' suggests 'down'.

He fell off the stairs He lost contact with the stairs. It implies that he came straight down and hit the ground. However, in theory some strong and quick person may have reached out, grabbed him and pulled him back on to the stairs.

Best wishes, Clive

Mr Patrick · Answer

The anonymous post is mine. I don't know how I managed to log out...

But Clive has already given a much better (and shorter!) explanation.

Rex · Answer

Clive and Mr. Patrick

These are not tricky. These are very difficult. I drew the following conclusion:

You fell down from a tower.
You fell down the stairs.

Clive · Answer

Hi Rex,

You fell down from a tower. Better and more common is 'You fell from a tower'. Fall includes the idea of down (you don't usually fall up.

)
You fell down the stairs. Yes

Best wishes again, Clive

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