Causative: have and get something done

When you use it

I painted the flat means you held the brush. I had the flat painted means someone else did it for you, usually because you asked or paid. English uses have and get with a past participle to make this difference clear. You need the structure whenever you talk about services: haircuts, repairs, deliveries, medical tests, building work.

The same verbs can name the person who does the job (I had the mechanic check the brakes) and can describe something unpleasant that happened to you without your choice (I had my bag stolen).

How it is formed

Have and get are ordinary verbs here. They take every tense and form: is having, had, will get, has got, to have, getting. The past participle at the end never changes. The thing comes between the verb and the participle, and that order is the whole point: had cut her hair would mean something else.

Get is slightly less formal than have and often suggests that the arrangement took some effort or that the result matters more than who did the work. In the pattern with a person, the two verbs differ in grammar, not only in tone: have takes the base verb, get takes the to-infinitive.

Examples

• Anna had her hair cut on Friday.
• We are getting the roof repaired next month.
• Tom had the mechanic check the brakes.
• I finally got my brother to help with the move.
• Tom had his phone stolen on the train.
• I need to get these photos printed before the party.
• Anna had her flat painted while she was away.
• Why don't you get the neighbours to water the plants?

Common mistakes

• ✗ I cut my hair yesterday. (at the hairdresser's)
  ✓ I had my hair cut yesterday.
  Russian я подстригся and Ukrainian я підстригся use a reflexive verb that leaves open who held the scissors. In English I cut my hair states that you did it yourself. When someone else did it, the causative is not optional.
• ✗ I had my car repair. / ✗ I had my car repairing.
  ✓ I had my car repaired.
  The last word must be the past participle, because the meaning is passive: the car was repaired. The base form and the -ing form both suggest that the car is doing something.
• ✗ I got him help me.
  ✓ I got him to help me.
  Get with a person always needs to. The bare infinitive belongs to have, make and let, and learners who know those verbs carry the pattern over.
• ✗ I had him to fix the tap.
  ✓ I had him fix the tap.
  The opposite error. After have plus a person the verb is the bare infinitive. Have someone do something is the neutral way to say that you gave an instruction or a job.
• ✗ They repaired us the roof. / ✗ We made repair the roof.
  ✓ We had the roof repaired.
  Нам починили крышу is an impersonal sentence with they understood. English prefers to name us as the subject and leave the workers out; the causative does exactly that. Make is not a substitute, because make someone do means to force them.

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