“Causing something to take place” isn’t incorrect. But 99 times out of 100, the native speaker would say it was “made to happen”.
Category Archives: Wrong register
Executing, accomplishing, performing
When a task is being done, far simpler alternatives are available. The one that is most commonly overlooked is to “carry out”.
A telling point
The verb “to tell” is quite widely used and versatile in English, but comparatively rarely used by non-natives.
Youth and young people
“Youth” has several meanings but often with an old-fashioned, condescending, daddy-knows-best feel to it.
Performance
“Performance” is the noun that comes from “to perform”. But it’s not the right word to use for carrying out tasks or doing work: the overtones are too confusing.
Woods, forests and jungles
Your everyday, common-or-garden patch of countryside with trees is a wood or woodland. Forests are bigger, darker and nastier; jungles are definitely more exotic.
Hitting the right register
Dutch is rich in synonyms (often pairs with Germanic and Latinate roots). The nuances of usage aren’t quite the same – and it’s an issue in English too.
They seek him here, they seek him there
To ‘seek’ is another of those words that are very similar to a much more everyday Dutch equivalent. It therefore gets heavily overused in Dunglish.
Hanging prepositions
When two different prepositions are needed in a list of actions, it can read better if you repeat the noun (or use “it” or “them” as a placeholder).
Medical Latin
Don’t assume that Latin in Dutch medical texts will be the same in English: this is often not the case. Abbreviations in particular can be incomprehensible to English speakers, even doctors
