Egypt Secondary 3 English (Connect), Week 11: The causative: have and get something done

Unit 5: changing jobs, future skills and the causative

Week 11 · Unit 5 From Muscles to Mindset (A): the opener, a text about how work is changing (reference only), idioms, a debate prompt about AI and jobs, a talk on future skills (our own read-aloud text), a listening about fast technology, and the causative (have / get something done; make, let, allow) · 3 lessons

The causative: have and get something done

English Secondary 3 Term 1, Unit 5 Lesson 3: pp. 74–76

GoalUse have and get to say that someone else does a job for us, with the right form of the verb.

New words

causative · a pattern that says someone else does a job for youpast participle · the third form of the verb, such as fixed, printed, cutbase verb · the verb without to or -ingrepair · to fix something that is brokeninstall · to put a thing in place so that it can workservice · help that a person or a shop gives

Explanation

Use the causative when another person does the job for us. Pattern 1: have + person + base verb: We had the caretaker open the gate. Pattern 2: get + person + to + infinitive: She got her cousin to teach her chess. Pattern 3: have or get + object + past participle: I had my bike mended. Salma is getting her photo printed. In pattern 3 we do not need to name the person who does the job. Change have or get for the tense: has, had, will have, is having, is getting. Careful: pattern 1 has no to, and pattern 2 has to. A short note: make and let are followed by a base verb (Our teacher let us use the room) and allow is followed by to (She allowed us to leave early); we do not build a whole lesson on them. Common slips: had it fixes, got it repair, got him help. The book’s items on page 75 are named by page.

Pattern	Structure	Example
have + person + base verb	had the caretaker open	We had the caretaker open the gate.
get + person + to + verb	got her cousin to teach	She got her cousin to teach her chess.
have / get + object + past participle	had my bike mended	I had my bike mended.
note	let / make + base verb; allow + to	She allowed us to leave early.

Worked examples

Pattern 1: “The caretaker opened the gate for us.” → We had the caretaker open the gate. After the person we use the base verb.

Pattern 2: “My cousin taught me chess; I asked him.” → I got my cousin to teach me chess. After the person we use to + verb.

Pattern 3: “A shop printed our poster.” → We had our poster printed. The past participle printed comes after the object.

Other tenses: Salma is getting her bike mended this week. She will have her school photo taken on Monday. Slip: “I had it mends” is wrong; write I had it mended.

Class activity

Pair work: each of you says three things you had done or got done in the last month (a haircut, a photo, a bike repair). Your partner asks one question with Who and writes your answers with the causative.

Practice

Complete with have: We ___ the caretaker ___ the door yesterday. (open)

Complete with get: She ___ her brother ___ her with the poster. (help)

Rewrite: “A shop printed our poster.”

Correct the mistake: “He got his bike repair.”

Correct the mistake: “I had the teacher to check my work.”