🔼CAUSATIVE HAVE AND GET🔽

Causative structures are generally taught as a category of passive voice. These types of structures are used to talk about a situation where we make someone else give us a service or do something for us. This focus on the speaker that makes something do something to another person is the main difference between the classic passive voice and causative structures. Look at the following example:

➧ My car was serviced yesterday. (passive voice - we are simply interested in the fact that the car has been repaired)

➧ I had my car serviced yesterday. (causative structure - the announcer has ordered the repair of his car)

Cause structures can be constructed with the GET or HAVE verbs.

⏩ 1. Causative structures with GET:

get + complement + infinitive - means "to make someone or something render some service". There is a connotation of resistance or difficulty:

➧ Get your father to help with your homework!

➧ I can not get the car to start.

In this construction, the complement is the subject of the infinitive.

get + complement + past participle - means "to cause something to be done". The past participle is equivalent to the passive voice:

➧ I need to get my watch repaired.

➧ I got my photo taken for the new passport.

In this construction, the complement is not the subject of the participle, but receives the action expressed by the participle. That is why we speak of equivalence with the passive voice.

⏩ 2. Causative structures with HAVE:

have + complemento + infinitive without "to" - its meaning is similar to that of the structure with get, with the difference that it is used above all in American English and there is no connotation of resistance:

➧ They had us take off our shoes in the middle of the airport.

➧ I can see Mr. Jennings now. Have him come in, please!

➧ I had the plumber fix the pipes in the kitchen.

Remember that the complement is the subject of the infinitive.

Observation:

There is also a variant of this structure with the present participle, which focuses on the duration of a situation:

➧ They had us laughing all through the evening.

have + complement + past participle - its meaning is similar to the structure with get, with the difference that, in some contexts, it is used to talk about unpleasant situations:

➧ I had my hair cut yesterday.

➧ I had my house broken last summer.

Examples causative have and get:

1. She is going to have her hair cut at the new hairdresser's.
2. I need to get someone to fix the leak in the kitchen.
3. The school should have someone replace the broken windows.
4. I had my car serviced after the accident.
5. She  had her purse stolen on the bus yesterday.
6. He's 35 but he still  gets his family to pay his bills.
7. I need to have my eyes checked.
8. He had his flat burgled while he was abroad.
9. It took me a long time to get somebody to answer my question.
10. I didn't have any money, so I  painted my flat  myself.

Important:

1. Look at the difference between the following sentences:

➧ I cut my hair. (I've done it myself)

➧ I had / got my hair cut. (another person, probably a professional, has cut my hair)

2. The verbs get and have are not always causative:

➧ I got dressed as quickly as I could.

➧ I got home late at night.

➧ They got married in June.

 I had lunch in an Italian restaurant.