"You Got Some Explaining to Do"

[Charlie Bernstein]

Google has about 212,000 results for the phrase "some explanation to do" (search with the quotation marks to restrict the results to the phrase).

Ugh!

Don't look for good grammar online! The internet will show you what people say, but many native English speakers have terrible grammar.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Thus, you would advise learners that all the following examples from the Corpus of Contemporary American English are improper:

• "I remembered that I had been sent to make explanations so as to obtain Broome's release."
• "Rif hated to make explanations. "
• "She did not like to make explanations at parties."
• "Third, more research related to levels of generalization understanding, such as ability to state the generalization, to use the generalization to make explanations, and to use the generalization to make predictions, is needed."
• "Those who ultimately lose would make explanations based on this causal schema Explanations would be the same for winners and for losers at half-time, and would also be the same for winners or losers at the end of the game."

In any case, my main point in Post #14 was not that "make" collocates awesomely with "explanation"; it was that by changing "do" to a verb that is idiomatically followed by the noun "explanation," the second construction found in the OP becomes grammatically possible and, in certain special contexts, even usable, with its own very distinct meaning. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Yup. Your "explanations to make" makes sense. But (as you made clear up front) it's awkward. So I agree that it would be a disservice to encourage a student to use it.

[Charlie Bernstein]

May I be the first to point out that "You got" is also wrong? . . .

Yes, but it's colloquial. See post #20.

[Phaedrus]

Yup. Your "explanations to make" makes sense. But (as you made clear up front) it's awkward. So I agree that it would be a disservice to encourage a student to use it.

I don't find it awkward, and it is used. I see no reason to discourage students from using it in the right context. The context I had in mind (Why are you typing another post? Oh, let me guess. You've got some explanation to make) was one in which make relates to write or type (an explanation to write) or compose (an explanation to compose). The idea is that something is being created (a post with an explanation) which didn't already exist.

We can give explanations, provide explanations, offer explanations, make explanations, write explanations, compose explanations, type explanations, etc.

I'd like to apologize to tedmc, who, in Post #4, which the moderators seem to have overlooked in their "likes," made the same important point I was making in Post #14, his unfortunate mistake (analogous to my choosing the unpopular verb "make") being simply to leave "You got" unedited. What he pointed out, regardless, was that the second construction in the OP is possible with that little shift of "do" to a different verb.

[Charlie Bernstein]

I don't find it awkward, and it is used. I see no reason to discourage students from using it in the right context. The context I had in mind (Why are you typing another post? Oh, let me guess. You've got some explanation to make) was one in which make relates to write or type (an explanation to write) or compose (an explanation to compose). The idea is that something is being created (a post with an explanation) which didn't already exist.

We can give explanations, provide explanations, offer explanations, make explanations, write explanations, compose explanations, type explanations, etc. . . .

Good points. Right you are!