English Causative Verbs - MAKE, LET, HAVE and more. Part Two

Welcome back to part two of our video on causative verbs.

Last week we looked at the meanings of three common causative verbs.

You can see part one here if you missed it.

This week we’re going to look at some grammar and fix some common mistakes.

There are lots of causative verbs and 'make', 'let' and 'have' are the most common ones.

They’re all irregular so it’s make, made, made, let, let, let and have, had, had.

Easy, huh?

The tricky thing is the pattern they follow when they’re causative verbs, and it’s

this.

There’s the causative verb, then the person who does the action, and then the action.

Let’s see an example.

What does your dad do if the room is a mess - if your bedroom is a mess?

He makes me sort out my clothes and put them away.

'Sort out' and 'put away' are phrasal verbs.

Sort out means organize and tidy and when we put things away we put them in the place

they’re kept.

He makes me sort out my clothes and put them away.

Notice the structure here.

There’s the causative verb, then the person who does the action, and then the action.

It’s the same with the verb 'let'.

Do your parents let you eat ice cream for breakfast?

Well actually, unfortunately, no.

No.

But they let me eat pancakes.

Oh well they’re very nice, aren’t they?

And some maple syrup.

So make and let follow the same structure.

Causative verb, person action.

Now here’s the thing.

Suppose we change the verbs ‘make’ and ‘let’ to the verbs 'force' and 'allow'.

They’re causative verbs too.

If we use them instead the meaning stays the same, but look what happens to the structure.

There’s a ‘to’ there.

After make and let, we don’t say ‘to’.

That’s strange.

After most verbs we put ‘to’, but not with make and let.

And it’s the same with the causative verb 'have'.

Sometimes I walk Carter myself and sometimes I have the dog walker take him out

We could also say 'get' here.

Get is another causative verb and it means the same thing as have, but the pattern is

different.

Sometimes I get the dog walker to take Carter out.

In structures with 'get', we say to.

The elevator's broken down.

I had to climb up ten flights of stairs.

Oh dear.

Oh.

Hello? Vicki, I’ve got a package for you, but the

elevator's broken down.

Yeah, I've just heard.

Don’t worry.

I’ll have Jay carry it up.

It’s quite heavy.

No problem.

I’ll get him to come and collect it now.

So remember, 'make' 'let' and 'have' - we don’t say ‘to’.

That’s the first tricky thing.

Now the next tricky thing.

What about the past tense?

If something happened in the past, which verb is going to take the tense?

The causative verb or the other verb?

Let’s see.

We’ll watch a story and then I’ll ask you some questions about it.

And then the princess married the prince and they lived happily ever after.

Is that it?

Yeah, it’s time for you to go to sleep now.

Can’t I have one more?

All right then.

Layla, it’s time for you to go to sleep now.

We’re just going to read one more story.

Just one more.

Oh all right then.

Are you asleep?

Yep.

He’s fast asleep.

OK, I’ve got two questions for you.

First one.

What did we let Layla do?

We let her stay awake a little longer.

We let Layla have one more story.

Perhaps it’ll make her sleepy.

Next question.

What made Layla’s dad sleepy?

It was the book.

The story made him fall asleep.

So which verb took the past tense?

The causative verb.

The other verb doesn’t change.

Let’s have another example.

Someone’s at the door.

Can you make Carter go to his crate?

Sure.

Carter, crate.

Good boy.

Down.

Good boy.

Have they gone?

Yes, you can let him out now.

Carter, come.

Good boy.

Such a good boy.

So first we made Carter go to his crate and then we let him come out.

It’s the causative verb that takes the tense.

Great.

Now there’s just one other thing you should know.

It’s about the causative verbs ‘have’ and ‘get’.

We often use them in the passive, so we talk about having things done and getting things

done.

We’ve made another video about that.

Click here and you can watch it.

And make sure you subscribe to this channel because we have new videos every week.

Watching our videos will make your English rise to new levels!

See you next Friday.

Bye!

I have the dog walker.... hah hah.

Sometimes I get the dog walker.. ha.

I love taking Carter out for his... ha.

Good boy.

Turn around.

Turn around.

Hah hah hah.

Sometimes I get the dog walker to take Carter out.