Hi there.
Have you ever found yourself puzzled by sentences like these?
'Grandma had me buy bread'?
Or 'My sister made me do the washing up'?
Or ‘I got my husband to buy me a new computer’?
Today, we're looking at 'causative verbs' and unlocking their subtle meanings.
These are common verbs, but here they’re being used in a very specific way.
Causative verbs - meanings where there’s a cause and an effect.
If you struggle with the meanings of these types of sentences, you’re not alone.
Let’s spend some time today understanding causative verbs.
They sometimes indicate the type of relationship between
people, their interaction.
And these are examples of more subtle meanings in English - understanding
these ways of using verbs will ‘help you read the room’ and better
understand people’s relationships.
Stay with me until the end of this podcast, and I’ll give you a quiz so
you can test your understanding here.
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OK, so causative verbs.
Lets go back and see if you understand the meaning of these English sentences?
Let’s use these as our examples.
Grandma had me buy bread when she didn’t need any.
I got my husband to buy me a new computer for my birthday.
My sister made me do the washing up.
My teacher let me leave the classroom early today.
So ‘to have someone to do something’, ‘to get someone to do something’,
‘to let someone do something’ and ‘to make someone do something’ - these
are the verbs I’m talking about.
They indicate that someone is ‘causing an action’ - that’s
why they’re ‘causative verbs’.
But they all mean something slightly different - they can mean ‘allowing’,
‘requesting’, ‘expecting’ or ‘forcing’ another person to do something.
The first one - ‘to have someone do something’.
And the example I gave - ‘Grandma had me buy bread when she didn’t need any’.
It's like saying, 'Grandma gave me the task of buying bread.'
It's a subtle way of showing someone's influence over an action.
Here it implies that grandma had either ‘given me the impression
she needed bread’ or grandma had ‘asked me to go and buy bread’.
There’s a little bit of a suggestion of service here - it could be that
grandma’s not well enough to go buy her own bread, so you do it for her.
Or grandma’s given the impression of needing bread, so you
go off to buy some for her.
The cause here - is grandma’s request ‘Please get me bread’ or
the perception that bread is needed.
The ‘I’ll have someone do something’ sentence implies that the person
I’m requesting to do the action won’t object, they won’t resist.
They’ll do the task gladly and willingly - or at least that’s the
impression that I want to give to you!
So if you ‘have someone do something for you’, essentially you’re ‘giving
them the responsibility’ for doing it and you’re not anticipating
that the person will object.
‘You need some extra chairs for the party?
I’ll have my husband bring some over for you’.
So the idea here is that the person speaking will ask her husband to
bring the chairs over - and it implies he will definitely say ‘Yes’.
‘I only have to ask him and he’ll do it willingly cos he’s a lovely chap!’
You also might hear this in a context where one person is ‘serving’ another.
‘I’ll have the waiter bring a clean glass’.
‘I’ll have the bellhop carry our bags up to the hotel room’.
That sounds old fashioned to me, like something out of an Agatha Christie
novel maybe - but bellhops or ‘bellmen’ are still common in the US, I believe.
And maybe in the UK too, but in posher hotels that the ones I go to!
So ‘to have someone do something’ means ‘I’ll request it and
they’ll do it willingly’.
Second one - have you ever convinced someone to do something for you?
Perhaps persuading my husband to buy me a new computer?
So this is 'to get someone to do something'.
It's about persuasion, making a request that someone agrees
to, perhaps even reluctantly.
‘I got my husband to buy me a new computer for my birthday’.
This one means either that ‘I asked my husband to buy me a new computer’ and
he said ‘Yes’ and went and got one.
Or that ‘I persuaded him to buy me a new computer’, even though he didn’t want to.
So although the husband does buy the computer here, there’s the
sense of a little more respect.
‘I got him to…’ means ‘I put in a request and he agreed’.
He could’ve said ‘No’.
If I say here instead ‘I had him buy me a new computer’ that suggests that
he didn’t have much power to resist.
And sometimes we use ‘to get’ when we mean we’re making use of a service - so
we might talk about the action, the ‘service’, without mentioning the
person who is going to do this for us.
So ‘I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow’.
Or ‘I got my computer repaired’ or ‘You’re going to get your cat groomed’.
Notice in this use of ‘get’, it’s not ‘getting someone to do something’
which uses an infinitive like ‘to buy’, instead it’s ‘getting something
done’, so it uses a past participle, like ‘cut’, ‘repaired’ or ‘groomed’.
Third one - ‘I made my sister do the washing up’.
So we’re moving on to a stronger meaning: 'to make someone do something'.
This one's forceful.
It's like I had to insist my sister wash the dishes.
She didn't want to, but I made it clear it was her turn.
Here, 'to make' indicates a lack of choice, a bit of pressure.
It could be that I threatened to punch and kick her if she didn’t do
the washing up, but more likely I went in with some heavy persuasion.
And my sister relented and did the washing up.
It suggests two things - I was determined that my sister would do
it and set about making it happen.
So it was slightly what we call ‘coercive’, C O E R C I V E - the
person on the receiving end of the ‘made’ had little choice!
And it implies there was resistance - my sister didn’t want to do the
washing up - and she wouldn’t have done it, if I hadn’t made her.
Does that make sense?
Fourth one - ‘My teacher let me leave the classroom early today’.
In contrast, 'to let someone do something' is gentler.
It's about permission.
Often it's a kind gesture, showing flexibility and understanding.
'To let' is more informal and often used in everyday conversation.
In this sentence the ‘let me’ could be replaced by the more formal
verb ‘to permit’ - ‘My teacher permitted me’ - that’s ‘P E R M I T’.
Or you could say ‘My teacher allowed me’, that’s ‘to allow’, A L L O W.
It’s about the level of formality.
So ‘to let’ is the least formal, ‘to allow’ is in the middle and
‘to permit’ is the most formal.
So ‘My teacher let me leave the classroom early today’ - this might
have happened whether or not the person speaking had asked to leave early.
But the clear expectation for the person speaking was that they
were expecting to stay longer.
Again does that make sense?
‘Leaving early wasn’t a given - it was the teacher’s choice to allow it’.
‘She let me’
These small verbs are crucial in English.
They help you understand nuances and intentions behind actions.
It's not just about the words, but about the stories they tell.
These little, tiny English verbs might not sound that different, but the
differences in meaning are important to understanding ‘what’s going on’.
It’s what we call ‘picking up the nuances’.
And again it’s that idea that you need to ‘read the room’, if your level
of English is going to be advanced.
So tiny, little words ‘had me’, ‘got me’, ‘made me’, ‘let me’ - they’re all
in the most common 500 words - but it’s this subtle use, this different meaning.
And notice the slightly different forms.
‘I’ll get her to’ is the only one that puts a ‘to’ in front of the verb.
So, careful listening, to how they're used in different contexts is important.
Let’s practise, let’s do a test where you ‘fill in the blanks’.
I’ll read some sentences and you see if you can supply the missing verb.
It’s going to be ‘made or make’, ‘have or had’, ‘get or got’ or ‘let’, which
is the same form, LET in all tenses.
Here goes - which word fits best?
I’ll say ‘blank’ in the gap.
Number 1.
She Blank her dad to give her a lift to the party.
Number 2.
I Blank my mother buy me some new socks by complaining a lot about the old ones.
Number 3.
I Blank my cat sleep on the bed because otherwise he gets lonely
and cries outside the door.
Number 4.
My mother Blank me make cakes all afternoon, even though I didn’t want to.
Number 5.
Yesterday I Blank my son stay off school, because I felt sorry
for him as his hamster had died.
Number 6.
I’ll Blank my daughter to give you a call and then you can talk
through the interview process.
Number 7.
I’ll Blank my son carry your suitcases for you - they must be so heavy.
Number 8.
The teacher Blank me read out my essay to the rest of the class,
even though I didn’t want to!
Number 9.
I’m going to Blank my ears pierced next year.
That’s the end of the test.
How did you do?
If you’re not sure or you need more time - then stop the podcast
here and go back through it again.
OK, here are the answers!
Number 1.
She got her dad to give her a lift to the party.
She put in a request for a lift and dad said ‘Yes’.
Number 2.
I made my mother buy me some new socks by complaining a lot about the old ones.
This one sounds like I did a lot of complaining about the old
socks - such that my mother gave in and agreed to buy new ones.
Number 3.
I let my cat sleep on my bed because otherwise he gets lonely
and cries outside my door.
So this one is about giving permission to the cat.
Number 4.
My mother made me make cakes all afternoon, even though I didn’t want to.
Here either ‘had me make cakes’ or ‘made me make cakes’ would do.
‘Had me’ is perhaps slightly more polite.
‘Made me’ implies more strongly that I didn’t want to do it!
Number 5.
Yesterday I let my son stay off school, because I felt sorry
for him as his hamster had died.
So again this is giving permission.
You could also say ‘I had my son stay off school’ in this one too.
But ‘let’ is the more obvious answer.
Number 6.
I’ll get my daughter to give you a call and then you can talk
through the interview process.
So here ‘get’ as it’s the only one that uses ‘to’ with the verb.
And here it sounds as though a polite request will be made to my daughter and
she will agree and make the call to you.
Number 7.
I’ll have my son carry your suitcases for you - they must be so heavy.
So again, this one implies that the person speaking has some authority over her son.
She ‘only has to ask’ and he will willingly carry those suitcases.
Number 8.
The teacher made me read out my essay to the rest of the class,
even though I didn’t want to!
So that’s slightly coercive.
I didn’t want to read out my essay to the class, but the teacher made
me - I felt like a had no choice!
Number 9.
I’m going to get my ears pierced next year.
So this one is ‘to get’ with a past participle, which tells you the person is
‘using a service’ - here, ear piercing!
OK.
Hopefully causative verbs just got a bit easier for you!
Or at least those four most common ones did.
As ever, give us feedback on this podcast - was it easy?
Was it difficult?
Was it just at the right level?
And listen to it a number of times to consolidate your learning.
Enough for now.
Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening.
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