things made it so

Question

Is this sentence natural? I never know if it is correct to say 'made it so that'?We didn't want to hurt you but things made so that we had no choice but to; things out of our control.Thank you

Doctor D · Accepted Answer

No, it is not natural. If I had to use your words, i might say something like:
We didn't want to hurt you, but we had no choice because of things that made us do so, things out of our control.
But I prefer to said it briefly:
We didn't want to hurt you but we were forced to because of events out of our control.

Doctor D · Answer

Sorry, didn't get my proofing done before it set:

No, it is not natural. If I had to use your words, I might say something like:
We didn't want to hurt you, but we had no choice because of things that made us do so, things out of our control.
But I prefer to say it briefly:
We didn't want to hurt you but we were forced to because of events out of our control.

There.

Anonymous · Answer

Have you never heard people use 'make it so' let me show you examples. I would like to know if these are natural? Would you or heard you people use make it so like this?

Circumstances made it that he wasn't able to make the trip.

If it were I, I would have made the video game more realistic. I would have made it so that it takes longer to rebuild after an attack on your camp.

I would never have become an actor, but a series of events made it so that I did.

She'd have made it so that he never went into any cemetery again and never heard of or saw a dead person the rest of his life.

This site won't allow you to connect to it if you're already connect from another computer. They should make it so that if you are connected from another computer, that you get disconnected and connect to the computer you're trying to connect to.

These apartments were made in a way (that insured) that each apartment was bright and got the light it need to be a nice place to live and not clinical without any light streaming through.

Thank you and happy new year

Doctor D · Answer

In most cases, "to make it so" is either informal or awkward.
Here is how I might write these:

Circumstances made it that he wasn't able to make the trip.
Due to various circumstances, he wasn't able to make the trip.

If it were I, I would have made the video game more realistic. I would have made it so that it takes longer to rebuild after an attack on your camp.
Okay, except for the opening. "If it were up to me..." (In this case, however, "made" refers to constructing or creating.)

I would never have become an actor, but a series of events made it so that I did.
I would never have become an actor, but a series of events made me one.

She'd have made it so that he never went into any cemetery again and never heard of or saw a dead person the rest of his life.
She would have guaranteed that/ensured that...

This site won't allow you to connect to it if you're already connected from another computer. They should make it so that if you are connected from another computer, that you get disconnected and connect to the computer you're trying to connect to.
Okay.

These apartments were made in a way (that insured) that each apartment was bright and got the light it needed to be a nice place to live and not clinical without any light streaming through.
Okay.

Looking at these examples, I see that "to make it so (that)" is acceptable when it is used in the sense of creating or constructing, and not so much when used in the sense of "causing to happen."

Anonymous · Answer

Could you tell me what you think of some of these phrases I found? Do you think they should not be used like that?
http://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?hardm=1&t=0&l=0&p=4&q=%22made+it+so+that%22

Thank you

Doctor D · Answer

If you have a few related phrases you want comment on, post them here.  I do not like to click on unknown links.

things made it so

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