Causative Verbs HAVE GET MAKE LET HELP English Grammar Lesson

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hello students welcome back to english

with lucy

it’s really nice to be back i had a

little rest i really needed a rest

and i had it and it was brilliant we

went on our honeymoon

which is the first holiday that you have

as a married couple it was great but i

will tell you more about that on the

personal channel lucy bella i’ll link it

down below today we’ve got far more

important things to talk about than my

holidays we are going to be talking

about

causative verbs in particular

have make

get

help and let

we use these five verbs with causative

structures meaning that we use them to

say that someone or something

causes something to happen they are

essential

and they are often a sticking point with

students a point of frustration well

i’ve got you don’t worry i’ve got you in

this lesson if i say i’ve got you or

really slang i got you

it means

i’ll support you don’t worry i’ve got

this for you you don’t have to worry

about it i’m going to help you and to

make things even more exciting there is

also a free pdf that goes with this

lesson

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learned today if you’d like that free

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let’s get started with the causative

verbs as i said before we’re looking at

five verbs that we use with causative

structures and we use them to say that

someone or something causes something to

happen let’s have some examples

i had

my hair cut

i had

my hair cut when i go to the

hairdressers i have my hair cut in some

languages it would be normal to say i

cut my hair

and you can say this in english

but to be extra clear that you didn’t

cut it yourself i had my hair cut

another example

my parents made me clean my room

my parents made me clean my room let’s

go into a little bit more detail because

each verb is different but one thing to

note is that you can use the causative

verbs in all of the past present and

future tenses let’s take a deeper look

at have

now there are two ways that we can use

have as a causative verb the first way

is to say that someone does something

for us

we generally use this construction when

somebody performs a service for us or on

us the structure is subject have

object past participle so following that

structure we have claire

loves having her photo taken

subject have in its correct form object

past participle claire loves having her

photo taken claire isn’t taking the

photos herself someone else is

performing that service for claire

another

kurt never has his car cleaned kurt

never has his car cleaned don’t judge

kurt students maybe he cleans it himself

it’s a very sensible thing to do

two more examples

i had my makeup done

and the last one

ben is having his house painted

ben is having his house painted

so in all of these sentences

the subject doesn’t perform the action

someone else does it you’ll notice that

we’re not saying who performs the action

and this is normally because it’s

obvious the hairdresser the house

painter in fact we wouldn’t say a house

painter would say decorator painter and

decorator we might also not say who’s

performed the action because it simply

isn’t important this is the same as when

we use the passive voice

let me know if you’d like a video on the

passive voice because i’ve seen a couple

of requests for it

i think it would be a really good video

to do it might help quite a few of you

comment down below if i see enough

requests

i will consider it

now i like these sentences these

causative sentences because to change

the tense of a sentence you only have to

change the tense of the causative verb

now interestingly we can replace

have with get in informal situations

this is very very common

i use this all the time instead of tara

had her car repaired

it’s just fine to say tara got her car

repaired

instead of ben has his house cleaned

ben gets his house cleaned do you get

your house cleaned i always get my house

cleaned let’s look at the second way in

which we can use have as a causative

verb this is very similar but in this

case we do say who performs the action

it doesn’t have to be describing a paid

service but it very often is the

structure is slightly different let’s

take a look

it’s subject have

person

infinitive

an example i’ll have jane call you

i’ll have jane call you this is

something a boss might say about their

secretary who in this case is jane it

makes the person sound quite important

or a mother might use it about their

children

i had my children clean their rooms

i had my children clean their rooms

i will say it does sound rather formal

but if you’re wanting to give off quite

an important vibe a vibe of importance

then it could be a really good one to

use remember to use the infinitive after

the person you don’t need to conjugate

the verb again you only need to

conjugate the causative verb

let’s take a look at some more examples

mary had her assistant call the catering

company or i’ll have my husband email

you the details

i’ll have my husband email you the

details i’m not sure how my husband

would feel about me having him do

something i think i’d just

ask him nicely

i hope that’s clear

remember that there are lots more

exercises and examples in the pdf let’s

move on to get now now when you get

someone to do something it means you

persuade them to do something the

structure is subject

get

person to infinitive

an example i got my son to cook dinner

because i was tired i persuaded him to

do it or

helen got the mechanic to check the

whole engine maybe the mechanic appeared

reluctant to check the whole engine at

first but she got him to do it she

persuaded him to do it good old helen

when you say good old someone it’s a

term of affection oh good old lucy i

know i’m not necessarily old in most

people’s eyes but my mum always says oh

good old lucy always

stacking the dishwasher i can’t think of

another example i do

often stack the dishwasher for my mum

such a good daughter i like get in this

form to get someone to do something it’s

easy to learn and it’s easy to use i

think it’s a really good one a couple

more examples i got

julianne to come to the doctors with me

maybe she didn’t want to before she was

reluctant or

my dad got all of his friends to come

with him to my performance good old dad

see that’s used in context let’s move on

to make

this causative verb is used to say that

we forced someone or something to do

something we forced them to do something

that they didn’t want to do the

structure is subject make object

infinitive an example she made me watch

a horror film i didn’t want to watch it

but she forced me to do it or i make my

children do their homework before dinner

they’d probably prefer to do it after

dinner or never

but i forced them to do it before dinner

so we have get which is persuading

someone and make which is forcing

someone it doesn’t always have to be

really negative for example i make

people take their shoes off before they

come in my house this is understandable

i’m not necessarily forcing them but i

am obliging them to do it or the teacher

made me change the title of my essay

they obligated me to do it

we’re flying through these let’s move on

to let

when we use let as a causative verb

it means that we allow someone to do

something we give them permission the

structure is subject let object

infinitive are you noticing a trend here

there is quite a strong trend an example

my parents let their grandchildren stay

up as long as they want they allow them

they give them permission to

or i let the grass grow very long and

now it’s difficult to cut

another example

please don’t let the cat into my bedroom

this has been my life recently we’ve

moved house as you might be able to tell

by the new background and because so

many of you complained that it was dark

and dreary i’m not sure if you used the

word dreary

but dreary is bleak gray depressing

great word dreary

because so many of you complained i got

some lights and i went crazy with them

look how many lights there are lights

going out in all directions um

i bet i’m now going to get complaints

about the lights as well

i don’t care i just like the interaction

let me know what you want next

as i was saying we’ve moved house and

the cat just got so angry about the

change

that he did a

i’m sure you can imagine on our bed as a

protest

we were not happy and he was trying to

tell us he wasn’t happy

oh dear you’ll be pleased to know that

alfonso is now once again a happy cat

but those first two weeks where he

wasn’t allowed outside were

smelly

right

let’s move on to the final one this is

help i’m sure many of you will know this

word by now to help means to assist

someone the structure when we use help

as a causative verb is as follows

subject help

object infinitive or too infinitive we

can create sentences with or without to

and the meaning doesn’t change i know

that that’s a common doubt that gets

brought up in a lot of classes so

i’ll show you some examples of that so

you can see it for yourself

my mum will help me decorate my flat

or my mum will help me to decorate my

flat same meaning it doesn’t matter

whether you include it or not

i helped my friend move house i helped

my friend to move house now i would say

it’s more common to leave out the two

simply because it’s more efficient fewer

syllables we like to go for things that

are easy to say music helps me fall

asleep music helps me to fall asleep we

don’t need that extra syllable

now you can use the extra syllable

if you like syllables that brings us to

the end of this lesson and now i’d like

to invite you to test your understanding

by downloading the pdf there’s a quiz at

the bottom the answers are there too so

you can check your work

definitely share your score in the

comments section though i’d like to see

how you’ve understood today’s lesson

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that’s all for now i will see you soon

for another lesson

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