causative passives
TRANSCRIPT
Causative Passive
Causatives in the active voice:
The bad weather caused him to have an accident.
=The bad weather make him have an accident.
When I was a teenager, my parents didn’t allow
me to smoke.=
When I was a teenager, my parents didn’t let me
smoke.
I asked him to get me some coffee =
I had him get me some coffee.
“help” can take either the base form or the infinitive—both are
correct:My friend helped me move last weekend.
My friend helped me to move last weekend.
(active) I had the dentist pull my tooth.
I had the tooth pulled.
I took the computer to the repair shop, and paid
them to fix it
I had my computer repaired.
I paid somebody to prepare my taxes for me
I had my taxes prepared.
I went to the hairdresser and paid them to cut my
hair
I had my hair cut.
When you use “have” causative, you can also
use “get”:I got the tooth pulled.
I got my computer prepared.
I got my taxes prepared.I got my hair got.
I got the tooth pulled.I got my computer
prepared.I got my taxes prepared.
I got my hair got.In these sentences, “got”
is more informal than “have.”
BE CAREFUL!
The causative passive with “had” looks a lot like the past perfect, which has a different
meaning!
I had my hair cut = I paid somebody else to cut it.
The hairdresser had already cut my hair when I changed my mind about
the style I wanted.(Active voice, past perfect = The hairdresser cut my hair, and then I changed
my mind.)
I had my hair cut.had + noun + past
participle
The hairdresser had cut my hair
had + past participle + noun
Causative passive or past perfect?
I had sold my car before I moved here.
I had my car sold . (I asked or paid another
person to sell my car for me.)
I had my car sold by my sister. (I asked my sister to sell my car for me.)
It is possible to have a past perfect and an
causative passive in the same sentence!
I had just had my car fixed when I had the accident.(I had my car fixed, and a short time after that, I had
the accident.)
• When do we choose to use a causative
passive?
It’s the same reasons for using any passives—
the active agent is obvious
unimportantsomething I don’t want
to tell you
I had my car fixed. (Who fixed my car? A mechanic,
obviously.)
With a passive causative, this is the most likely
reason.
The Obama administration had a
website designed.(Who actually designed it?
I’m telling you.)
The Obama administration had a
website designed.(Who actually designed it?
I’m telling you.)
We use a passive either because we don’t know or because everybody knows
so we don’t have to say who did it.