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
with a quiz so you can practice what you
learned today if you’d like that free
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housekeeping housekeeping used in this
context means something that we have to
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started with the real information so to
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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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