Causative

Remember:
1. The causative has the meaning of 'someone causes someone to do something'.
2. The three verbs usually used for the causative are get,have, and make.
Examples:
a. John got Susan to rake the leaves.
b. John had Susan rake the leaves.
c.John made Susan rake the leaves.
Notice in a that there is a to in to rake.
Notice in b and c that there is no to.
3. Get gives the idea of persuasion, have is asking, and make is forcing or strong
convincing. There is not much difference between have and get.

causative have
Form
have + object + verb 3 past participle - have something done
have + object + infinitive - have someone do something
Meaning
1. We use causative when arranging for someone to do something for us.

They had their car repaired.

They arranged for someone to repair it

They repaired their car.

They did it themselves

I had my hair cut yesterday.

I went to the hairdresser

I cut my hair yesterday.

I cut it myself

2. We use causative when someone does something to us.

Bill had his money stolen.

3. We can use have someone do something to talk about giving

instructions or orders (more common in American English).

I had my assistant type the report.

I'll have my lawyer look into it.

causative have
We use the 'have something done' construction when we want to indicate that we have
arranged for other people to do something for us.
Compare the following sentences:

'He repaired the fence.' (He did the work himself.)

'He had the fence repaired.' (He arranged for somebody else to do it.)

'Are you going to redecorate the house yourself?' 'No, Im going to have it
redecorated.'

Take care with the formation of the causative. The past participle always comes after
the object, thus:
have + object + past participle
Look at these examples:

'The family had their portraits painted by a professional artist.'

'Weve just had double-glazing fitted and the house is so much warmer now.'

'Its not surprising that you break down all the time, you never have your car
serviced.'

'When are you going to have your bad tooth taken out?'

'Joanna loves having her photograph taken, but David hates it.'

the causative can be used with a wide variety of different tenses and
constructions, e.g. past simple, present perfect, present simple, future
reference, 'like/dislike/love/hate' + -ing and so on.
In informal, spoken English, we also sometimes use the alternative 'get
something done' instead of 'have something done':
'When are you going to get your hair cut?'
'If you dont get the roof repaired before winter, youll be in serious trouble.

A- Have + object + past participle

This construction can be used to express more neatly sentences of the type I
employed someone to do something for me; i.e. instead of saying I employed
someone to clean my car we can say I had my car cleaned, and instead of I
got a man to sweep my chimneys (got here = paid / persuaded etc), we can say
I had my chimneys swept.

Note that this order of words, i.e. have + object + past participle, must
be observed as otherwise the meaning will be changed: he had his hair
cut means he employed someone to do it, but He had cut his hair
means that he cut it himself some time before the time of speaking (past
perfect tense).

When have is used in this way the negative and interrogative of this present and past
tenses are formed with do:
-

Do you have your windows cleaned every month? I dont have them cleaned;
I clean them myself.
He was talking about having central heating put in. Did he have it put in in the
end?

It can also be used in continuous tenses:

I cant ask you to dinner this week as I am having my house painted at the moment.
While I was having my hair done the police towed away my car.
The house is too small and he is having a room built on.
Get can be used in the same way as have above but is more colloquial. Get is also
used when we mention the person who performs the action:
She got him to dig away the snow. (She paid / persuaded him to dig etc)
(have with a bare infinitive can be used in the same way, e.g. She had him dig away
the snow, but the get construction is much more usual in British English.)
B- Have + object + past participle construction can also be used colloquially
to replace a passive verb, usually one concerning some accident or
misfortune:
His fruit was stolen before he had a chance to pick it can be replaced by he
had his fruit stolen before he had a chance to pick it, and Two of his teeth
were knocked out in the fight can be replaced by He had two of his teeth
knocked out.
In A the subject is the person who orders the thing to be done, here the subject is the
person who suffers as a result of the action. The subject could be a thing:

houses
The houses had their roofs ripped off by the gale.
Get can also replace have here:
The cat got her tail singed through sitting too near the fire. (The cats tail was singed
etc.)