Who is in charge? - Causative Verbs in English

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is causative verbs. And this is

a different structure we use in sentences when it's important to show authority and

important to show someone who's deciding an action. So how I'm going to introduce these

verbs to you is to show you some example sentences first. Some are in the causative structure;

some are not in the causative structure. So let's have a look.

Sentence No. 1, "John cleans the windows for me." That's the structure you already know.

What's important in this sentence is the subject, John. He's the man cleaning the windows. Okay.

You know that. It's easy.

Sentence 2, "I have John clean the windows for me." This is the introduction to the causative

structure. We've got causative have. What's different about this sentence? "John" is now

in the object position, and "I" is in the subject position. So what's different about

this is -- we still know that John is cleaning the windows, but what's different is you are

becoming important because you have the authority to make that happen. So it gives us a little

bit more information about what's important here.

Let's have a look at No. 3. "I have the windows cleaned." What's missing in this sentence

is we don't know who's doing the cleaning anymore. It's not important because we don't

have John's name here. So something is missing in this one. No. 4, "I get John to clean the

windows." This structure is causative get, and we can use it in the same way as causative

have -- the same way as this. And again, it's like an order or a task John is given to do,

and you have the authority to make that happen.

No. 5, "I make John clean the windows." Then you really -- you're not being very nice to

him. You're forcing him. And poor John has no choice. You've got to be his boss, maybe

his wife. I don't know, but you're not being very nice to him.

And let's have a look at No. 6. This is causative let. And we use this for permission. "I let

John clean the windows for me." What does that mean? He's begging you. He's saying,

"Please. Can I come and clean your windows?" So you can see they have different meanings

here. But what we're going to do in the next part of the lesson is look at the structure

you need to use to build that kind of sentence.

But before we get there, when can you use causative structures? Well, you need to have

some kind of authority relationship. So you need, like, a boss and an employee or a teacher

and a pupil, okay? Or you need a parent and a child. Otherwise, the causative structure's

just not going to work. You can't say to your colleague, "I make my colleague bring me tea."

You probably can't say that unless you bully your colleague. It's not going to work.

So let's start by looking at the structure now. Causative have and get are the same structure

for this meaning. So you choose "have" or "get" and then your object and then a past

participle. And what's useful to remember about this? Wherever you have a job done in

your house -- you have something fixed or your car fixed or something redesigned or

something changed in your house -- you use this causative structure. So here are some

examples. "She had the kitchen redecorated." "I'm getting the car fixed." So you can use

it in the different tenses as well.

Let's have a look at the other causative structures that you need to know. So we've got causative

get. And this is a different meaning, this one. We use this one when you want to persuade

someone or -- no, when you have persuaded someone to do something. So for example, "I

got Tom to lend me some money." He didn't want to lend you some money, but you spoke

to him nicely; you did some sweet talk, and you got him to lend you some money. So that

means persuaded him to do something for you.

Here's another example. "We got them to reduce the price." Perhaps you're in a shop. You're

an angry customer, a displeased customer. You got them to reduce the price. "Reduce

the price or I'm not buying it." And somehow, you managed it. So that's causative get. It's

get + object + to infinitive. So here's "get"; "Tom" is the object; there is "to", so infinitive

and verb. "I got Tom to lend me some money." There's the structure. And it's different

to the other structure that we just looked at because in that other structure, we don't

have "to" there. So it's different.

Let's look now at causative make and let. Remember that "make" means "force someone",

and "let" means to do with permission -- give someone permission. Let's have a look at the

sentences. "Mum made me eat my vegetables." So a child would probably say this. The child

is being forced to eat vegetables. "Make", object is "me", and this time the verb, but

no "to". "Mum made me eat my vegetables."

Another example. "My boss makes us work late." You have no choice. It's probably illegal

if that's not in your contract.

Next example. These ones are with "let". "My parents don't let me eat junk food." If you

want to make it negative, the negative goes before your verb there, before your "let".

"My patients don't let me eat junk food."

And the last example, "Tom let Sarah leave the office early." Tom has the authority to

decide if Sarah can leave now or later or early. So there you go.

You can use these causative structures whenever you have someone in a position of authority

and stuff happens because they need to persuade someone to do something or force someone to

do something or permit someone to do something. So this is a new structure for you to be using

in your English.

What you can do now is go to the EngVid website and do the quiz on this just to make sure

you've got the grammar fixed in your mind, you know where to use a "to", where not to

use a "to" in these structures. But before you go there, I'd really appreciate it if

you subscribed here on my EngVid channel. And that's it. So come back and watch more

videos with me soon. And I'll see you later. Bye.