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Causative and similar structures with get

Causative: Don’t get him talking.​

Get + object + …ing means ‘make somebody/something start …ing’.

  • Don’t get him talking about his illnesses.
  • Once we got the heater going the car started to warm up.

Causative: Get Penny to help us.​

Get + object + infinitive means ‘make somebody/something do something’ or ‘persuade somebody/something to do something’: there is often an idea of difficulty.

  • I can’t get that child to go to bed.
  • Get Penny to help us if you can.
  • See if you can get the car to start.
note

For have + object + infinitive (meaning ‘order/instruct somebody to do something’), (see here).

Causative: get something done​

Get + object + past participle can mean ‘cause something to be done by somebody else’. The past participle has a passive meaning.

  • I must get my watch repaired. (= I want my watch to be repaired.)
  • I’m going to get my hair cut this afternoon.

Have is used in a similar structure, (see here).

Experience: We got our roof blown off.​

Get + object + past participle can sometimes be used in the sense of ‘experience’.

  • We got our roof blown off in the storm last week.

This idea is more often expressed with have (e.g. We had our roof blown off). (see here)

Get the children dressed.​

We can also use get + object + past participle to talk about completing work on something.

  • It will take me another hour to get the washing done.
  • After you’ve got the children dressed, can you make the beds?