Learning English

Dan 

Hi guys! Dan for BBC Learning English here with this week's Learner Question. Find out what it is after this.

OK! This week's learner question comes from Dayra in Ecuador, who says, can you help me, please? I don´t understand about the use of have + object + past participle. Well, well done for writing to us, Dayra. You can have the answer explained.

Have + object + the past participle is called the causative. And we use this structure when we arrange for someone else to do something for us. Consider this: I cut my hair yesterday versus I had my hair cut yesterday. In the first example, I did the action. I cut my hair myself. But, in the second sentence – like most people - I had somebody do this for me, because it’s quite difficult to cut your own hair, no?

There are lots of common every day actions that happen like this. For example, I had my car repaired. I had my nails done. I had my shirt cleaned. These are probably things that we pay for every day, but money doesn’t necessarily have to be involved.

This structure can be used in any tense. All we have to do is change the form of have. For example, I’m having my house repainted or tomorrow I’m going to have my dog walked. And in informal contexts we can replace have with get. For example, I’m getting my house repainted. There’s no difference in meaning.

Be careful. Context is very important. Consider the difference: I had my car repaired or I had my car stolen. The structures are exactly the same but the meaning is completely different. In the first one I paid someone to repair my car. I arranged this. But, in the second one, someone did this to me. I didn’t pay them to steal my car. That’s crazy!

I hope that answers your question Dayra. Thank you very much for writing to us. If anybody else out there has a question for Learners’ Questions, you can email us on: learning.english@bbc.co.uk. Please remember to put Learners’ Questions in the subject box and your name and the country where you’re from. We can’t answer every single one, guys, because we just get too many, but we do read all of them. And don’t forget to go to our website: bbclearningenglish.com. That’s it! I’ll see you next time on Learners’ Questions. Bye.