Causative Verbs

Causative verbs hold a special importance in English. 

Lexical Causitive

A causative verb is a kind of verb which causes someone to do something. The subject himself does not do the action. He gets it done by someone else.  Look at the following examples. 

Common Verb: Birds fly.
Causative Verb: Boys fly kites.
Common Verb: The child walks. 
Causative Verb: Mother walks the child. 
Common Verb: The tree falls. 
Causative Verb: The woodcutter fells the tree. 

English does not have specific or lexical causative verbs for all actions. In these cases, we make causative with the help of MAKE, HAVE, GET & CAUSE. 

Examples: 

  • Ricky made the coblar repair his shoes. 
  • Micky have her house tutor do my homework. 

Form: Subject + make/have/get/cause + Object + Infinitive. 


MAKE & HAVE:

Make & Have follow Bare Infinitive. 

STRUCTURE: Subject + HAVE/MAKE + Object + Bare Infinitive

  • Mother makes me do homework. 
  • Mother has me do homework. 
  • The teacher made the students clean the classroom. 
  • The teacher had the students clean the classroom. 


GET & CAUSE:

Get & Cause follow Full Infinitive. 

STRUCTURE: Subject + GET/CAUSE + Object + Full Infinitive

  • Mother gets me to do homework. 
  • Mother causes me to cook food. 
  • The teacher got the students to clean the classroom. 
  • The teacher caused the students to clean the classroom. 

IMPORTANT!

You have probably noticed that the object of  MAKE, HAVE, GET & CAUSE are the doers (subjects) of the second verb. 

Similar Verbs:


Let & Help: 

Let and Help follow object + Bare Infinitive.

STRUCTURE: Subject + LET/HELP+ Object + Full Infinitive

  • The lion let the mouse go.
  • Teachers help us learn. 
  • The boy helped the blind man cross the road. 


Allow & Permit: 

Let means ALLOW or PERMIT. But, Allow and Permit follow object + Full Infinitive. 

STRUCTURE: Subject + ALLOW/PERMIT+ Object + Full Infinitive

  • The lion allowed the mouse to go. 
  • The lion permitted the mouse to go. 


FORCE & PERSUADE: 

FORCE and PERSUADE also follow object + full infinitive structure.

STRUCTURE: Subject + FORCE/PERSUADE+ Object + Full Infinitive

  • The lion forced the mouse to go.
  • We persuaded the magician to show magic. 


Infinitive or Past Participle?

HAVE and GET can follow both infinitive and past participle. When the object of the first verb does the action of the second verb, we use the infinitive form of the second one. 

But when the object of the first verb receives the action of the second verb, we use the past participle form of the second one. 

  • I had my mother clean my dress. 
  • I had my dress cleaned by my mother. 
  • We got a painter to paint our house painted. 
  • We got our house painted by a painter.