The causative:
The causative is a grammatical structure we can use to show that someone pays or ask someone else to do something for them.
Note: the causative can also sometimes be used for unpleasant situations which we did not arrange. Mum had her bag stolen on holiday.
- Choosing the right tense:
If you are not sure what tense have or get should be in, think of the sentence as a normal subject + verb + object sentence and use the same tense.
- The causative is form by have/get + object + past participle (by/with). The newsagent delivers our newspaper every morning. → We have/get our newspaper delivered every morning.
- If we use by, we say who is actually going to do the work. She had the dress made by a professional dressmaker.
- If we use with, we say which tools or materials they used. They had their house painted with a special paint.
- Get is usually more informal than have. We get our newspaper delivered every morning. (Informal) → We have our newspaper delivered every morning. (formal)
Note: the causative can also sometimes be used for unpleasant situations which we did not arrange. Mum had her bag stolen on holiday.
- Choosing the right tense:
If you are not sure what tense have or get should be in, think of the sentence as a normal subject + verb + object sentence and use the same tense.
- The newsagent delivers our newspapers (present simple) → We have/get our newspapers delivered (present simple)
- The newsagent is going to deliver our newspapers (future) → We are going to have/get our newspapers delivered (future)