causative

[hela]

I just love when I raise a point of grammar and that many natives start talking and debating about it. It means that my hesitation is well founded.

Thank you all for having given me your points of view, I'll study them again very carefully. If anybody knows of an interesting site where the causative is dealt with, apart from the article X Mode was talking about, would you please send it to me?

All the best,
Hela

[Marylin]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

To me, and this is my idiolect speaking, not the Standard, 'have' someone do something feels more polite, whereas 'get' someone to do something has a range of meaning, from lightly persuade to force--make you do it.

For example,

They didn't fix my car! I'll get (i.e., make it a point to get) them to do it again.
They didn't fix my cat! I'll have (i.e., make it a point to politely ask) them to do it again.

That's my idiolect, though. The reason being, 'get' is new (centuries new), whereas 'have' is old-school, traditional. Traditional forms tend to be considered more formal, and hence my choices above.
For most speakers today, though, causative "have" and "get" tend to be used as synonyms.

I agree with you Cassy. I find the "have+sb+do sth" form to be nice and subtle in comparison with the other one. It doesn't feel like you are telling people what to do but simply asking them to do something for you.