Virtuous English Academy
The Causative: Have and Get Something Done (B1)
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The causative (have or get something done) describes arranging for someone else to do a job for you, such as having your hair cut. This lesson shows how to form it and why it is so common in everyday English.
The causative describes arranging for someone else to do something for you. I cut my hair means you did it yourself; I had my hair cut means a hairdresser did it. This distinction matters constantly in everyday English, because most services we use are performed by other people.
The structure is have or get plus the object plus the past participle: have the car serviced, get the roof repaired. The person doing the work is usually left out entirely, because the point is the service, not the provider. When you do need to name them, add by: I had the report checked by our lawyer.
There is a second, quite different use worth recognising. Have something done can also describe an unpleasant experience that happened to you rather than something you arranged: She had her bag stolen. Nobody arranges to be robbed — here the structure simply reports that the subject was affected.
How to form The Causative
| Tense | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present simple | have/get + object + participle | I have my car serviced every year. |
| Present continuous | am having + object + participle | I'm having the kitchen painted. |
| Past simple | had/got + object + participle | We had the roof repaired. |
| Present perfect | have had + object + participle | I've had my laptop fixed. |
| Future | will have + object + participle | I'll have it delivered. |
| Modal | modal + have + object + participle | You should have it checked. |
| Question | do + subject + have + object + participle | Where do you have your hair cut? |
| Causative with a person | have/get + person + to do | I got my brother to help. |
The Causative: the key rules
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Have + object + past participle: you arrange for someone else to do it.
I had my car serviced yesterday.
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Get + object + past participle is the informal twin, and adds urgency in commands.
We're getting the roof fixed. Get your eyes tested!
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The tense travels on have/get, and the doer can appear after by.
She's having her portrait painted by a local artist.
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Have something done also reports misfortunes.
He had his phone stolen on the metro.
When to use The Causative
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Services you pay for
The core use — anything done for you by a professional.
We had the boiler serviced last week.
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Talking about home and car maintenance
An extremely common context in everyday conversation.
I'm getting the windows replaced in the spring.
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Describing something unpleasant that happened to you
The experiential use, where nothing was arranged at all.
He had his phone stolen on the train.
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Persuading someone to act
A different pattern — get someone to do, or have someone do.
I got my colleague to review the figures.
have something done vs. get something done
Almost interchangeable, with a small difference in register and implication.
have — neutral
The standard form in both speech and writing. Simply reports the arrangement.
I had the suit altered. We have the office cleaned weekly.
get — informal, more effort implied
Slightly more colloquial, and often suggests you took action to make it happen.
I finally got the suit altered. We got the office cleaned before the visit.
The Causative in example sentences
- I need to have my eyes tested.Service performed by a professional.
- We're having the bathroom retiled next month.Continuous form for an arrangement in progress.
- She had her passport renewed in March.Past causative.
- Have you had the car serviced yet?Present perfect question — note have had.
- You should have that cough looked at.Modal plus causative.
- They had their flat broken into last year.Experiential use — nothing was arranged.
- I got my sister to proofread it.get someone to do — a different pattern.
- We had the contract reviewed by a solicitor.by names the provider when it matters.
The Causative in a real conversation
Both uses appear — arranged services and one unpleasant experience.
Petra:Your kitchen looks completely different.
Josef:We had it redone in the summer. Got the floor replaced too.
Petra:Did you do any of it yourselves?
Josef:Only the painting. We had everything else installed professionally.
Petra:I need to get my boiler serviced, actually.
Josef:Do it soon. Our neighbour had her pipes freeze last winter.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
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I cut my hair yesterday. (meaning at the hairdresser's)
I had my hair cut yesterday.
Without the causative you claim you did it yourself — the participle after the object hands the job to someone else.
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We had painted the house last month. (meaning by professionals)
We had the house painted last month.
Word order is the whole meaning: have + object + participle is causative; have + participle is just past perfect.
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She got repaired her laptop.
She got her laptop repaired.
The object must come between get and the participle.
Practise The Causative today
Contrast doing it yourself with arranging it — that is the whole point of the structure.
- Write six sentences about services you use, all in the causative.
- Rewrite each one as if you did the work yourself, and compare the two.
- Write four causatives in different tenses: past, present perfect, future, modal.
- Write three sentences using the experiential meaning of have something done.
The Causative: frequently asked questions
What is the difference between I cut my hair and I had my hair cut?
The first means you did it yourself, with your own scissors. The second means a hairdresser did it for you. English makes this distinction routinely, and getting it wrong produces a surprising picture — I painted my house suggests you personally held the brush, while I had my house painted implies you hired decorators. Whenever a professional did the work, use the causative.
Are have and get always interchangeable?
Very nearly, in the service meaning. Get is slightly more informal and often implies some effort or persistence on your part. Have is neutral and preferred in formal writing. The one place they diverge is the experiential meaning, where have is standard — She had her bag stolen sounds natural, while She got her bag stolen sounds distinctly colloquial.
How do I form a question with the causative?
Treat have as an ordinary main verb and add do-support: Where do you have your car serviced? Did you have the roof repaired? Learners often try to invert have itself, producing Have you your car serviced, which is wrong in this structure. In the present perfect the auxiliary appears naturally: Have you had it serviced?
What is the difference between get something done and get someone to do something?
The first focuses on the result and leaves the person unmentioned: I got the report translated. The second names the person and uses an infinitive: I got Marek to translate the report. Have works the same way but takes a bare infinitive with a person: I had Marek translate the report. All three are correct, with different emphases.