A combination of two verbs with the meaning of one transitive verb is found in the every-day expression make believe, meaning pretend. This cannot be separated. It is usually followed by an infinitive or a noun clause used as its object. For example, “Whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick and made believe to worry it.”—Lewis Carroll.
Exercise 31
Explain how all verbs and verbals in the following sentences are completed.
1. Storms shall sob themselves to sleep.—Beecher.
2. The time will come, let us hope, when all boys will be taught the use of tools, and all girls the principles of cooking.—J. F. Clarke.
3. He doubted, as he has himself owned, whether he had not been born “an age too late.”—Macaulay.
4. You will hear more wit and better wit in an Irish street row than would keep Westminster Hall in humor for five weeks.—Bagehot.
5. He was her special pet and she disapproved of the nurse.—Kipling.
6. Conclave after conclave asked him to be Pope.—Hale.
7. When the clock strikes the hour, his mind begins to work.—Hillis.