Causative Form of Have and Get
Causative Form of Have and Get
Causative Form of Have and Get
We use a causative verb when we want to talk about something that someone else did for
us or for another person. It means that the subject caused the action to happen, but didn't
do it themselves. Maybe they paid, or asked, or persuaded the other person to do it. For
example, we can say:
In a sense, using a causative verb is similar to using a passive. The important thing is that
the house is now clean. We don't focus on who did the cleaning.
We usually use 'have something done' when we are talking about paying someone to do
something for us. It's often used for services. The form is 'subject + have + object + past
participle'.
We can also use 'subject + get + object + past participle'. This has the same meaning as
'have', but is less formal.
We can also use the construction 'subject + have + person + infinitive'. This has a very
similar meaning to 'have something done', which we've already talked about, but this time
we say who did the thing - we talk about the person who we asked to do the thing for us.
Finally, we can also use the construction 'get + someone + to + infinitive'. Again, this
means that you cause the other person to do the action, maybe by paying them to do it, or
by asking them to do it, or by persuading them to do it.
She gets her son to do his homework by promising him ice cream when he's finished.
I got the cleaner to clean under the cupboards.
Sometimes, this construction has the feeling that we needed to convince someone to do
something, while the other constructions on this page are neutral.