There is a group of grammars that can confuse a lot of learners. How do we know the difference between have somebody do something vs get somebody to do something?
have someone do something
This is the causative voice. This grammar point is about someone causing another action. Imagine these two sentences:
- I asked my waiter for water.
- My waiter got me water.
With this grammar, we can combine the two sentences. We can mention the requester, the servant/waiter/person-who-helps, and the action that person does. Also, notice the second verb that comes after “have” is the 1st verb form like be, go, do, take, etc.
The key point about “have” that separates it from the next grammar is that this grammar is the result of a request or demand. You can think of this as the result of some request like “bring me water,” “can I have some water,” or “would you mind bringing me some water.”
I had the waiter bring us more bread.
= I told the waiter “Please bring us some bread,” and he is now coming with more bread.
The king had the jester dance for him.
= The king told the jester “dance for me.”
get someone to do something
This is similar to the last one. The subject causes another action. In this case, imagine another situation:
- I convinced my mom.
- My mom drove me to the concert.
We are again combining these sentences. Notice that this time we must include the word “to,” and again we use the 1st verb form like be, go, do, take, etc.
How can we know the difference between have somebody do something vs get somebody to do something? What is special about this grammar is convincing. This is the result of the servant/waiter/person-who-helps changing their mind.
If “I got my mom to drive me to the concert,” she probably did not want to, but I changed her mind. I must have promised her that I would clean the kitchen for a week and do my homework and help her in the garden if she drove me. After my promises, she agreed to drive me. Now, I can express that she changed her mind and still did something for me because of what I said.
The girl got her boyfriend to carry her bags.
= The boyfriend did not originally want to carry any bags, but the girlfriend looked at him and said “😢 Please, baby, I’m so weak. I really need you to carry them,” and he changed his mind.
The teacher got the students to stay quiet.
= The students were originally loud, but the teachers said “If you don’t stop talking, I’m giving you all extra homework,” and all the students stopped talking.
The Passive Versions
If you want to focus on the requester and the action but not the servant/waiter/person-who-helps because that’s not important, you can use these grammar forms that are almost identical. This is an entirely different point from have somebody do something vs get somebody to do something, so it deserves individual attention.
have something done – someone else did it for me
In this grammar, the subject did another action (maybe asking or paying money) and the result was an action. We want to mention the action with special focus on the object of the action. Here, we combine two sentences:
- I paid the barber.
- The barber cut my hair.
In the final sentence, we don’t need “the barber” because it can be obvious, especially when it comes to hair. The result is: “I had my hair cut.”
The action is going to be in a past participle or 3rd verb form like done, taken, stolen, etc.
I am having my car oil changed.
= I paid for a service, probably from a mechanic, to change my car oil.
The hotel room is messy, so we should have the room cleaned.
= We should ask the hotel staff to bring someone to clean the room for us. (The middle step of calling hotel staff and bringing a maid is unnecessary because it obvious in the context of a hotel.)
get something done – someone else did it for me but informal
This is identical to the previous point. The only possible distinction is that this one is slightly more informal and more common in daily speech. The distinction of asking or convincing is NOT true for the passive forms like in the case of have somebody do something vs get somebody to do something.
We use this grammar point when we just want to comment on the completed action, and the person helping us is not so important or is obvious.
The man’s suit is dirty, and now he needs to get his suit cleaned.
= The man should pay someone to clean his suit for him. (He will obviously go to a dry cleaner, so we do not need to say that directly.)
She loves to get her nails done.
= She loves when the manicurist does her nails. (Obviously, the manicurist will do this action, so we can exclude that person from the sentence.)
Careful: I got my hair cut & I got a haircut
This sentence deserves special attention. It is a very common phrase since it is the most typical situation you will use the causative passive grammar.
The problem is that the three forms of cut are identical: these days I cut the grass, yesterday I cut the crass, and I have cut the grass many times this year.
Because of this, when we are using the causative passive form, it may not immediately sound like a passive sentence because cut never uses “ed” or “en.” However, native speakers immediately know it’s passive from context.
However, it can be confusing to know there is the noun “haircut” that means your hairstyle after the barber cuts your hair.
I got my hair cut = I paid someone to cut my hair for me.
I got a haircut = I received a new hairstyle.
In daily life, these are usually identical, but there is a small chance you can use the wrong one. If you cut your own hair, the first sentence is wrong. If the scissors simply touched your hair, not giving you a new hairstyle, the second sentence is wrong. In reality, mostly these are the same, but be careful for the rare situation where they are not the same.
Summary
- have the man wash my car = I asked him to wash my car for me
- get the man to wash my car = I changed his mind and convinced him to wash my car
- have my car washed = somebody else (not me) washed my car for me
- get my car washed = somebody else (not me) washed my car for me
Hopefully, you can know the difference between have somebody do something vs get somebody to do something, which are only subtly different.
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