Learn English – Make or Makes for

grammar

Which is correct:

People with closed minds make terrible leaders?

OR

People with closed minds makes for terrible leaders?

Best Answer

To make for is an idiom with several different meanings. In the context of this question, the approximate meaning is 'to produce', 'to represent' or 'to constitute':

Raw earthworms make for grim eating = Raw earthworms represent an unpleasant kind of food

Dobermans make for great guard dogs = Dobermans have the qualities needed to make them great guard dogs

Sowing camomile in your lawn makes for very fragrant picnicking = When you sow camomile in your lawn, the result can be aromatic picnics

People with closed minds makes for terrible leaders is incorrect because the wrong form of 'makes' is used (it doesn't agree in number with 'people'); People with closed minds make for terrible leaders is fine.

In the context of the kind of situation you asked about, as well as in the first two of my examples, 'make' and 'make for' are pretty much equivalent.

'Make for' is slightly more colloquial/conversational. It is also the form that works when you introduce a statement with a verb in the present progressive tense, as in my 'camomile' example.

Both Patrick T. Randolph and J_LV have answered your main point correctly.

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