made it so that

[navi tasan]

Are these sentences correct:

1) We made it so that he did not look guilty.
2) We made things so that he did not look guilty.

Nothing is really being produced, fabricated or constructed here. We just caused him not to look guilty. We made him not look guilty.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[probus]

In both cases the hypothesis is that he was guilty but we made it seem otherwise. How could we do so without falsifying?

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much Probus.

Yes. We are falsifying evidence. But we are not necessarily 'making' any object.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Matthew Wai]

You are making false evidence.

Not a teacher.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

Yes. We are falsifying evidence. But we are not necessarily 'making' any object.

I think your point is that no physical, material object was constructed. Maybe you described the situation in a certain way, or gave evidence of some sort, that resulted in the person not looking guilty. In this case, your examples are fine. The first one seems a little more natural and likely.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much JMurray.

Yes. That is exactly what I meant! Nothing was necessarily constructed.

Respectfully,
Navi.

 

[Tdol]

The second could refer to circumstances.

 

[probus]

Things that can be made are not necessarily physical objects. They can also be ideas.

"I can make it so that" you seem to have made a down payment, even though you did not.

I think "make it so" is also something of an idiom, or at least a phrasal verb. Here are some examples from the BNC.

"you just have to make it look right and make it so it's easy to recognise and people will buy it"

"people make it so easy for the criminal"

"some banks make it so difficult to open an account"