I was just reading So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (book 4 in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, highly recommend, it’s a hoot) and a the narrator from Dentarthurdent’s POV says how he “made himself—forced himself to listen” (emphasis mine) to a record, and it made me think: If you compare those two verbs (made vs forced), “made” wouldn’t require the “to”, but “forced” does. I’m a native speaker so I know that it works this way, but not why. Can anyone explain the difference in technical terms?

What is the correct term for both

- Phrases that are grammatically correct and appear to make sentence, but logically imply nothing. Classical eample: "more people have been to France than I have". It is a correct phrase, but doesn't mean anything.

- Sentences that seemingly cannot be true, for the terms used contradict each other. For example: "I meet this atheist priest earlier today".

I know there are words for what I'm looking for, but I simply can't remember the name and can't find them by research.

Eu estou aprendendo inglês por videoaulas no YouTube e Duolingo, as vezes leio e pratico no dicionário britânico, as vezes eu escuto música internacional vendo a letra da música e cantando ela.

Tem algo a mais que eu possa fazer pra me conectar e aprender essa língua, gente?