Monday, April 11, 2016

Have/ Get Something Done: The Causative Passive


Hi there!
The grammatical structure herein presented is not a particularly difficult one to understand, but a rather tricky one to use spontaneously. It is not difficult to envision as it is just a question of applying the structure To have/ to get + something *+ past participle (done, cut, repaired, cleaned, etc.). It is a sequence we use when talking about services, that is things that- because of lack of expertise, time, whatever...- we do not normally do ourselves, but rely instead on other professionals. We could, of course, say directly "the mechanic is repairing my car" instead of "I'm having my car repaired", but the focus is usually on ourselves, that is, we usually speak from our own perspective.

The reason why it might not be an easy structure to use at first has to do, again, with our native language interference: we usually say in Spanish "voy a cortarme el pelo" when, in fact, we rarely do that ourselves, but go to the hairdresser's instead. "I'm having my hair cut/ I'm going to have my hair cut" sounds much more accurate, and makes more sense in either language.
The same case applies to painters, mechanics, plumbers, cleaners, builders, beauty parlors and services of practically any kind.

Find below a pretty cool link with explanations and exercises on this very grammar content:


No comments:

Post a Comment