The Causative / Have something done

​Someone does something for us

​We use have + object + past participle when we want to talk about something that someone else does for us, usually because we pay them or we ask them to do it. Compare:

• We clean the house every Friday. (=we clean it ourselves)

• We have the house cleaned every Friday. (=someone else cleans it for us)

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The verb have is not an auxiliary verb in this construction so we need to use did or do for negative sentences and questions when there is no auxiliary verb.

• We don’t usually have the house painted, we do it ourselves. (NOT: We haven’t the house painted)

• Did you have your house painted? It looks great. (NOT: Had you your house painted?)

​We can use have something done in any verb tense.

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​Get something done

  In informal English, we can use get + object + past participle with the same meaning as have something done.

• I need to get my eyes tested.

• They got their home rebuilt after the earthquake.  

• She got her legs burned in the fire. (negative experience)

​Have someone do something

  We can use the construction have + person + infinitive with the same meaning as have something done, but in this case we mention the person who is doing something for us.

• We are having the architect redesign the ground floor. 

• Susanne had her brother prune all the trees. 

Get someone to do something

  We can also use the construction get + someone + to+ infinitive to talk about someone doing something for us, because we are paying them, or because we asked or convinced them to do it. However, get someone to do something often implies the idea that you have convinced someone to do something.

• I got a mechanic to take a look at the car.

• Tom’s boss got him to go to a conference in Germany.