Is the word "causes" used perperly here?

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

A fine or awkward usage?
Context:
The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug.

Its awkward.

Maybe it means:
The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug.

OR:
in its mutant form, the virus is more resistant to the drug

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

oristarA wrote:
A fine or awkward usage?
Context:
The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug.
Its awkward.

Maybe it means:
The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug.

OR:
in its mutant form, the virus is more resistant to the drug

Thank you Dave.

PS. I got a problem in the use of "'s":

The therapy's good treatment response in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

Should I rewrite it as:

The good treatment response of the therapy in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

But I feel " The good treatment response of the therapy" seems to have some different meanings.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

oristarA wrote:
A fine or awkward usage?
Context:
The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug.
Its awkward.

Maybe it means:
The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug.

OR:
in its mutant form, the virus is more resistant to the drug

oristarA wrote:

Thank you Dave.

PS. I got a problem in the use of "'s":

The therapy's good treatment response in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

Should I rewrite it as:

The good treatment response of the therapy in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

But I feel " The good treatment response of the therapy" seems to have some different meanings.

U might consider trying it this way:
In some patients [maybe cite to a percentage of patients, for better precision],
optimal responses to this therapy have resulted from use of Drug B.

Will that do the job for u ?

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Its awkward.

It's worse than that: it's wrong.

2 Replies

@contrex,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Its awkward.

contrex wrote:

It's worse than that: it's wrong.

It's rong to be awkward.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

OmSigDAVID wrote:
Its awkward.

contrex wrote:
It's worse than that: it's wrong.
It's rong to be awkward.

Something can be awkward and still be grammatically correct.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Its awkward to be rong.

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

OmSigDAVID wrote:

oristarA wrote:
A fine or awkward usage?
Context:
The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug.
Its awkward.

Maybe it means:
The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug.

OR:
in its mutant form, the virus is more resistant to the drug

oristarA wrote:
Thank you Dave.

PS. I got a problem in the use of "'s":

The therapy's good treatment response in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

Should I rewrite it as:

The good treatment response of the therapy in some patients is involved with the use of drug B.

But I feel " The good treatment response of the therapy" seems to have some different meanings.
U might consider trying it this way:
In some patients [maybe cite to a percentage of patients, for better precision],
optimal responses to this therapy have resulted from use of Drug B.

Will that do the job for u ?

I think "have resulted from" has a full certainty rather than a probability that "is associated with" converys, Dave. They are different since.

But the basic problem has been resolved.

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Its awkward.

It's worse than that: it's wrong.

I've repeatedly read Dave's "The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug" and found nothing improper there.
Could you enlighten me further?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

I've repeatedly read Dave's "The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug" and found nothing improper there.
Could you enlighten me further?

Dave's is OK; your sentence "The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug." is the one that Dave said was "awkward", and which I said was not only awkwards but wrong.

2 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
I've repeatedly read Dave's "The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug" and found nothing improper there.
Could you enlighten me further?

Dave's is OK; your sentence "The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug." is the one that Dave said was "awkward", and which I said was not only awkwards but wrong.

I know it was suspicious and awkward that is why I posted the thread.
But I failed to know why. Could you explain it?

2 Replies

@oristarA,

0 Replies

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

"The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug." ...

...I know it was suspicious and awkward that is why I posted the thread. But I failed to know why. Could you explain it?

The sentence is in the form: The [noun] causes the [noun] [adjective]. This is an incomplete sentence.

Can you see why these are wrong?
Beer causes my mother aggressive.
Prolonged hard work causes me tired.

The verb 'cause' requires either a noun or if the thing caused is denoted by an adjective, then a verb like 'to be', 'to become', to [do something].

The sentence asked about should be in the form:

The [noun] causes the [noun] to become (or be) [adjective]
The mutation causes the virus to become resistant to the drug.
Beer causes my mother to become aggressive.
Prolonged hard work causes me to become tired.

An alternative might be to use "makes":

The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug.
Beer makes my mother aggressive.
Prolonged hard work makes me tired.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

An alternative might be to use "makes":

The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug.
Beer makes my mother aggressive.
Prolonged hard work makes me tired.

That's it, Contrex.
I originally made the sentence 'The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug.' But always using "make" made me tired, so I tried to another word to substitute "make." I then used "cause" and you deemed the usage is wrong.

Bless my soul: "The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug:" is right and "The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug" is wrong. The English language is indeed nit-picking.

Your explanation has just enhanced my intuition that "causes... to be..." is more accurate but I've not yet got a crystal clear picture about it.
Drunk

2 Replies

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Bless my soul: "The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug:" is right and "The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug" is wrong. The English language is indeed nit-picking.

Nit-picking is pointless and excessively pedantic attention to small errors that do not matter. Correcting such errors as the above is not nit-picking. If you just want to write and speak pidgin English just go ahead - don't listen to us and don't ask questions here. If you said 2+2=5 and I corrected you, would you say that was nit-picking?

1 Reply

Don't miss this:

"The mutation makes the virus resistant to the drug:" Correct.

"The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug" is wrong.
~~~
The mutation causes the virus TO BE resistant to the drug. Correct.

or, perhaps even more accurate,
"The mutation causes the virus to become resistant to the drug.
~~~~
Oh, my, the verb 'to be'

I shall have been being overcome by what is is and what shalt have being been become done done. (that's a joke...)

Joe(I am still trying to learn to properly pronounce "Let's eat" in Chinese.)Nation

0 Replies

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

"The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug"

Did the mutation create the virus?

~~~~~~~

If you really want to use causes instead of makes perhaps you could try:

The mutation causes the virus' resistance to the drug.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
I've repeatedly read Dave's "The mutation causes the virus to be resistant to the drug" and found nothing improper there.
Could you enlighten me further?

Dave's is OK; your sentence "The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug." is the one that Dave said was "awkward",
and which I said was not only awkwards but wrong.

The question had been asserted (Post: # 5,074,774):

Oristar wrote:

"A fine or awkward usage?"

I responded to the question.
I have not denied that it was rong.
( Note that I corrected it adding the words: "to be". )

David

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

oristarA wrote:

"The mutation causes the virus resistant to the drug"

ehBeth wrote:

Did the mutation create the virus?

Arguably, the mutation created a new virus,
which was more drug-resistant.

1 Reply

Is the word "causes" used perperly here?

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