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Musicgold Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

to get something to…





Hi,



I heard the following sentence from a native English speaker. I am not clear about the construction – 'to get something to'… I am curious as to the standard format to use this construction.



“They try to get the boarding process to run smoothly, but no one would listen.”



He could have easily said – “They try to run the boarding process smoothly, but…” Why he chose the above construction?



Thanks,



MG.
  

Top answer

It was probably tri ed , but that's not your question. get X to Y ~ cause X to Y ~ make X Y They tried to make the ... process run smoothly, but ...

— CalifJim

  • It was probably tri ed , but that's not your question.
  • get X to Y ~ cause X to Y ~ make X Y They tried to make the ...
  • process run smoothly, but ...
  • They tried to cause the ...
  • process to run smoothly, but ...
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1 Answers
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It was probably tried, but that's not your question.

get X to Y ~ cause X to Y ~ make X Y

They tried to make the ... process run smoothly, but ...
They tried to cause the ... process to run smoothly, but ...

In short, get is a causative verb in that construction.

Compare:

I tried to get the dog to come to m
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