How to use 'have something done' - Learners' Questions

Transcript:
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!

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[phuongnguyen]

it's very useful. i have been feeling scared of these sentences before. but now i think it's very easy. thank you so much☺☺☺

[jayamohan]

Dan you are fantastic! You explained very well. Thanks.

[perinomichael]

thanks #Dan.
i had my doubt cleared.

[bansi]

This is very helpful. And I want to suggest something to the video/audio editor team. Please normalize the sound, because audio volume is very low and it's is very difficult to watch/listen this series on phone. Thanks you.

[emrearslan]

thank you so much for these valuable answers Dan keep on, they are very useful that you answer questions

[HarpreetSingh-sgxo]

in your example. I'm going to have my dog walked ..in this sentence I'm getting confuse ..who is doing the action in this sentence ...we arranged for someone to do this to me but we don't arranged someone for taking out dog for walking..plz explain dan sir...

[msba]

so then, can this be considered a passive voice? I mean you are somehow omitting the object or the person who did the action, for example, when you say: I had my hair cut, you are omitting the person who cut your hair, and you include him by using the by clause (exactly like passive voice) so you say:I had my hair cut by a hairdresser.

[nancykarinavillafane]

hi thanks for helping me in my English learning process. I would like to ask some tips for nominalization. It's a bit difficult for me to understand

[ferranmestrefontanet]

Hi BBC. I have a question. When do we need to use "sensation" instead of "feeling"? Thanks for advance. My name is Ferran and I am from Spain.

[reanaacharya]

If I had to form a question for the statement "Linda had her pencil broken." beginning with " Who"..
Then is the following correct:
Who had her pencil broken?

[ldvc]

Please help me i'm little bit confuse. Are theses sentences correct?: " The teacher had his students ( write ) an essay"
" He made his brother (cry)"

[tammytsang]

A long time ago, I had my wallet stolen when I was busy shopping in a crowded night market.