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Are Causatives Making You Crazy? |
This week's Everyday Grammar looks at the grammatical
forms called causatives. Basically, causatives express
how one actor causes another actor to do something. You
know the meaning of make as in "I made a cake." But in
the sentence, "My boss made me work late," make has a
causative meaning. In other words, my boss forced me to
work late.
What are causatives?
A causative sentence starts with a subject, followed by
a causative verb, then an object noun or pronoun, and
then the simple form of the verb. Three of the most
common causatives in English are make, have, and get.
In the book Understanding and Using English Grammar,
Betty Azar explains it this way:
X makes Y do something - that is, X forces Y to do something
X has Y do something - this means X requests that Y do
something
X gets Y to do something - this means X persuades Y to do
something
How to use make
Let's start with the causative make. As we mentioned
before, make means that X forces Y to do something. The
meaning of the causative make is stronger than have and
get.
We often hear the causative form of make in love songs.
Listen for the causative as Elton John sings.
What do I do to make you love me
What have I got to do to be heard?
Elton knows, however, it is impossible - you cannot make
someone love you.
In the movie "As Good as It Gets," actors Jack Nicholson
and Helen Hunt play a couple falling in love. Listen to
this dramatic compliment from Nicholson's character
Melvin Udall.
Nicholson: OK, now, I got a real great compliment for
you. And it's true. You make me want to be a better man.
Hunt: That's maybe the best compliment of my life.
Melvin's statement is possible – she made, or caused him
to want to change.
How to use have
Now let's look at the causative meaning of have. For
example "I had her cut my hair." You can also use have
to tell about a request, as in "I had him carry the bag
for me." In order words, "I requested that he carry my
bag."
A common mistake is using the infinitive verb form with
make or have. You should not say, "I made my cat to do a
trick." The correct sentence is "I made my cat do a
trick." It is easy to get confused, because this
sentence is very close to a correct sentence, "I taught
my cat to do a trick." This is a case where you just
have to remember that make and have, when used as
causatives, act differently from other verbs.
How to use get
Finally, let's talk about get. The verb get is used in
many ways, but as a causative, it means to persuade
someone to do something they may not want to do. For
example, "I got my son to clean his room." As a
causative get works the same way as make and have The
difference is, get is followed by an infinitive with to.
Notice the infinitive to eat in this sentence, "We got
the kids to eat the broccoli."
While reporting about the new climate plan, a journalist
wrote, "President Obama wants Americans to save energy
and lower greenhouse gases. To do that he must get them
to give up their SUVs." In other words, Obama must
persuade Americans to stop driving SUVs.
Know your infinitives
You might have noticed that with both make and have, the
following verb is in the base form. There is no to.
However, after the causative verb get, the following
verb is in the infinitive with to. For example, "I got
my boss to give me a raise."
We leave you with the British singer, Sam Brown, singing
George Harrison's song, "Horse to Water." Here again we
hear about the impossible. Anyone who has tried to make
a horse drink knows the horse must want to drink.
You can take a horse to the water
but you can't make him drink
Oh no, oh no, oh no
You can have it all laid out in front
of you but it still don't make you think
Oh no, oh no, oh no
That's Everyday Grammar for today. Until next week,
don't let causatives make you crazy.
I'm Jill Robbins.
And I'm Jonathan Evans.
Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English.
Ashley Thompson and Adam Brock were the editors. |
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