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Let them go home.
*Let them to go home.

*Allow them go home.
Allow them to go home.

Make them go home.
*Make them to go home.

*Force them go home.
Force them to go home.

What is the reason that "let" and "make" don't take "to" before the infinitive and "allow" and "force" do? What causes this? And does this phenomenon have a name?

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    As far as I'm aware it has no special name. We simply talk of some verbs taking bare infinitivals as complement and others taking to-infinitivals.
    – BillJ
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 11:00
  • @BillJ do you know if either of the two verb behaviors can be considered regular? If a new verb enters English, how will it behave?
    – Sam Engel
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 14:31
  • It depends entirely on the verb what parts of the for..to infinitive complementizer are required, optional, or forbidden. The subject marker for is only required when the infinitive beginning a sentence has a subject (*Him to leave early would be unwise, instead of For him to leave). When the subject is deleted, the for is too (except in some idiolects, which have for to V constructions in some cases. The loss of to is a feature of progressive shift of a matrix verb to a small verb on its way to becoming an auxiliary in future generations. Look at the verbs that govern it.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 16:17
  • Are you asking specifically about “causative” verbs?
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 16:44
  • @SamEngel Only a relatively small number of verbs take bare infinitivals: the modal auxiliaries and supportive do, the sensory perception verbs feel, hear, notice, observe, see and watch, and have, let, and make among the causatives. In addition a few are found either with or without to: ought, dare, and help. That's a general guide, there are a few odd-balls around.
    – BillJ
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 18:53

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This is an excellent question!

The construction you are using is the accusative and infinitive. This is an English-language construction that is derived from the Latin accusativus cum infinitivo. [1]

Here are some examples of the accusative and infinitive.

  1. The principal asked them to dress appropriately.
  2. Ask them to dress appropriately.

You can see that the verb is in the infinitive form ("to dress") and that the subject of the verb is in the accusative case ("them").

There is a class of verbs that can use the infinitive without the particle "to". This is often called the "bare infinitive", and it is contrasted with the "full infinitive" or the "to-infinitive".

The verbs let, make, do, help, can, will belong to this class of verbs. They can all use the bare infinitive.

  1. Let them begin!
  2. Help them finish their homework.
  3. Tell me a joke and make me laugh.

The phenomenon you are referring to is the omission of the particle "to" in an infinitive phrase. This can happen when the infinitive is preceded by specific verbs like let, make, do, help, can, will.

I think this happens for euphonic reasons.

Consider the sentence "I listen to him lecture the class." It would be awkward to say "I listen to him to lecture the class." So that is one example where we omit the particle "to" for euphonic reasons.

Consider the sentence "Let them begin!" This can be said very quickly. If we added the particle to, as in, "Let them to begin!" then it would be difficult to say.

One important consideration in language is how easy it is to say a word or sentence. We sometimes omit the particle "to" from an infinitive phrase when it is easier to say it that way.

Footnotes:

  1. The accusative and infinitive is often abbreviated as ACI (due to its Latin antecedent) or A+I.
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  • Yes, but "them" is only the understood (semantic) subject of the infinitival clause. Syntactically, "them" is object of the matrix verb.
    – BillJ
    Commented Mar 6, 2023 at 9:57

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