Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel Learn Academic English
in today's video I'm going to give you a grammar lesson about causative verbs causative verbs are
super common in English but there are a couple of rules that make them a little bit tricky
after I explain the rules I'm going to give you some examples and then at the end of the video
we'll take a little quiz and make sure that you come back for part two another video that I'm
gonna do about passive causatives next time so first of all what are causative verbs causative
verbs are verbs that show that someone causes or influences someone to do something so again
it's the idea that one person influences or causes another person to do something that's why they're
called causative verbs because they show cause and effect so three common causative verbs are make
let and have but in a couple minutes I'm going to show you two more get and help so first let's take
a look at the grammar for these verbs for have let and make we're going to use the same rule that is
that you have the verb plus the object which is the person and then the base form of the next verb
for example my boss had me redo the work so my boss is the person who
influenced or caused me to do something my boss had me do what redo the work notice that this
verb is the main verb of the sub of the sentence and that's the verb that's going to show the time
in this sentence it's past tense because maybe I'm talking about yesterday or last week then
it shows the object the person that was influenced to do something and then finally we have the base
form of the verb which here is redo and that is the thing that my boss influenced me to do
so again my boss had me redo the work my boss influenced me or pushed me to do it
notice that the verb have in the causative form means to require or to ask someone the next one my
mom had me call the company this is an example of using this to mean to ask someone to do something
my mom had me call the company you know she asked me to do it and I did it for her
again notice that this one is in the past tense but this could be in the present
in the future present perfect any verb tense here and then here's the object and here is the action
that I did and notice that this one is always going to be the base form okay the next one is
let someone do something and that is to allow or to permit for example I rarely let my kids
stay up late so here i'm using the simple present to talk about what's generally true
then my kids is the object and stay up is the base form of the verb that they do
or American bosses don't let staff arrive late so here we have the main verb of the sentence
let and we have the object which is the people and then the action that's in the base form
what does this mean this means that I don't allow or permit my kids to stay up late
or American bosses don't permit their staff to arrive late now notice if i use these verbs i'm
going to have to use two here but for these causative verbs it's the base form and this
is what makes the grammar tricky that there's no two here okay and the next one to make someone do
something is to cause force or require so this definitely has a stronger meaning meaning that
you're forcing someone to do something for example I make my kids do their homework after school
so I force them to do it I require them to do it or that movie made me think of my hometown now
this is a common use of this causative make and it means that it caused me to do something it made me
think of or i can say looking at that pie makes me feel hungry it causes me to feel something
okay before we move on to the other examples and the quiz we're going to look at two more
causative verbs the next causative verb that we're going to look at is get and this one
you have to pay attention because the grammar is different from the last ones we looked at forget
you're going to use get plus the object or the person and then the infinitive to plus the verb
the last ones we looked at we didn't use two but for this one we need to use two
and this means to persuade or cause someone to do something it's similar to have
that we looked at last time for example I got my kids to help me clean the house I persuaded them
to do it probably they didn't really want to but I persuaded them this is softer than make
if I say I made them do it it means that I forced them or can i get you to reconsider your decision
again this would mean can I persuade you to reconsider it's again softer um it's not impolite
and the last one is help and help is a little bit tricky because we have two possibilities we use
help plus the object and then we can use either the infinitive with two or we can use the base
form doesn't matter we can use both and of course you know what this means it means to assist or
guide or help someone to do something for example I helped her register for classes so here we have
the main verb in the past tense we have the object which is the person and then we have the verb
register in the base form or he always helps me to study for tests so here we have help in simple
present the object and the verb in the infinitive to be honest the more common form is the one with
the base form because it's shorter it's simpler it's easier to say but again you can use both we
also want to notice what are some common mistakes with causative verbs one common mistake is that
there should be no ed on the second verb for example he helped me finished the report so this
verb is in the past tense because this situation happened in the past but this verb needs to be
in the base form this is the main verb of the sentence and this one does not have any tense
so we need to take off that ed he helped me finish the report in the second one there is no to for
make have and let this is a common mistake because a lot of English learners remember
that when we have a second verb no not the main verb but for example I want to do something
the second verb then it's usually the infinitive but not with these verbs these verbs don't take to
so we if we look at this one she made me to do it she made me to do it that's a mistake this is the
main verb of the sentence and this verb always is in the base form no to okay let's look at a few
examples and then we're going to take our quiz to practice these causative verbs let's look at some
questions and you can practice answering them I will also give you my example answers first
What is something your parents made you do? remember that to make someone do something is to
force them or require them to do it well my parents made me do my homework before dinner
second Did your parents let you stay out late when you were a teenager?
remember let means to allow or permit
for me yes my parents let me stay out late when I was a teenager but only sometimes what does this
verb stay out late mean stay out means to go out and stay out like if you are out somewhere
hanging out with your friends this is different from stay up stay up means to stay awake stay out
means to go out and stay outside okay the next one Does your family help you pay the bills?
this verb help remember we can use help you to pay or help you pay
for me I'm gonna say no my family does not help me pay the bills
next What is something your first boss made you do?
My first boss made me work on holidays I worked at a movie theater and I was required to work
on holidays my boss made me work on holidays next Do local businesses let you enter without a mask?
Do they permit you to enter? here no local businesses do not let me enter without a mask
we have a mask mandate in Sacramento County and we are not allowed to enter a business without a mask
next What makes you feel happy? What makes you feel happy? what causes you to feel happy
for me right now seeing the fall colors on the trees makes me feel happy
and last Do schools let kids wear whatever they want in your country?
here in the U.S. most schools yes most schools let kids wear whatever they want because most
schools don't require uniforms here I'm going to leave these questions in the description box below
and you can answer them in the comments i would love to see your answers before we stop let's
take a quick quiz let's check your knowledge with a quick quiz I have five sentences and you need
to fill in the sentences with the correct verb we're gonna try using get help have make or let
how about the first one did you __ them to say yes
you can imagine the meaning means that we needed to persuade or cause someone to say yes
and there's a clue here about what the correct answer is we have to and which of these verbs
can we use to we can use to with get or help so which one is the best one here get
did you get them to say yes did you persuade them to say yes next your picture __ me feel happy
so that caused me to feel happy your picture made me feel happy my friends __ me study for the test
so think about the meaning did my friends force me to study
probably not so maybe we could say my friends helped me study for the test
we could use have here meaning that they pushed me to do it they caused me or influenced me to
do it my friends had me study for the test but probably your friends are not going to really do
that too much it is possible but I would probably say helped next I __ my kids do chores so think
about chores chores are things like vacuuming cleaning the kitchen cleaning the toilets
it's not very fun work so I could say here I have my kids do chores or to show a stronger
meaning I could say i make my kids do chores and finally I __ my students turn in late work
so I don't really want them to turn in late work but if they need more time I allow them
to turn in late work so I'm going to say here I let my students turn in late work
so don't forget to answer some of those questions in the comments below and let
me know if you have any questions about causative verbs make sure to give this video a like if you
found it helpful and subscribe if you have not already and you want more lessons like
this one and don't forget to come back and see part two about passive causative verbs
have a great day take care and I'll see you soon