Grammatical pattern: VERB + somebody/something + BARE INFINITIVE

example: She LET the students take the test again.
           
    VERB smby/smth BARE INFINITIVE  

In the sentence “She let the students take the test again,“ we have an example of a verb, “let,” followed by a somebody, “him,” and a bare infinitive, “take.”  (The “bare infinitive” is the infinitive form without the word “to.”) This pattern is less common than the pattern that uses the infinitive with “to,” but a small, important set of verbs follow this pattern.

 

Verbs that commonly follow the pattern [VERB  +  somebody/something  +  BARE  INFINITIVE]

bid, feel, have, hear, help, let, make, notice, observe, see, sense, watch, witness

 

Additional examples of the pattern [VERB + somebody/something + BARE INFINITIVE]

We watched the boats enter the harbor.

I saw him go into that building.

His mother made him finish all his vegetables.

My friends helped me move into my new apartment.

He had the barber cut his hair short.

 

 

 

All grammatical patterns