Causative Verbs

What are Causative Verbs?

have, get and make are causative verbs.

We know that, the subject does the action on the object.
Aanya helps her friends. (Aanya – subject; helps – verb; friends - object)

But when a subject (say subject 1) induces another subject (say subject 2) to do the action on the object, we use causative verb to denote it.

Aanya had her brother help her friends. (Aanya – subject 1; had – causative verb; brother – subject 2; help – verb; friends - object)

Aanya got her brother to help her friends. (Aanya – subject 1; got – causative verb; brother – subject 2; help – verb; friends - object)

Aanya made her brother help her friends. (Aanya – subject 1; made – causative verb; brother – subject 2; help – verb; friends - object)

We change get/have/make as per the tense of the sentence.

Have the car towed.
I had the car towed.

We cannot get him arrested for this petty crime.
We got him arrested by the police.

We have to make him do it.
We made him do it.

Difference between Make and Have/Get

Difference Number 1: Second subject is compulsory or optional

Second Subject is mandatory when ‘make’ is used as a causative verb.

Aanya made him do her homework. (Aanya – subject 1; made – causative verb; him – subject 2; do – verb; homework - object)

But Second Subject is optional in sentences that have causative verbs ‘get/have’. If Second Subject is present, it generally comes in the form of ‘by + Second Subject’, after get/have.

Aanya had/got her homework done by him. (Aanya – subject 1; had/got – causative verb; him – subject 2; done – verb; homework - object)

Aanya had/got him arrested. (Aanya – subject 1; had/got – causative verb; arrested – verb; him – object; subject 2 is missing, but understood, i.e. police)

Difference Number 2: Form of the main verb

When ‘get/have’ is used as a causative verb, the form of the main verb is $V_3$.

We cannot get your project done by our overseas team. (done - main verb in form $V_3$)
Have the pickle jar opened. (opened - main verb in form $V_3$)

When ‘make’ is used as a causative verb, the form of the main verb is $V_1$.

We have to make this code snippet work. (work – main verb in form $V_1$)