I had my hair cut.

Question

I had my hair cut.Do you think that the speech part of cut in the sentence is an adjective like happy in 'she is happy' or it is just a passive voice and still implies action like kicked in 'I was kicked (by her)' What do you native English speakers think?Thank you so much.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

Anonymousor is it just in the passive voice

Yes.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI had my hair cut.

'cut' is a past participle. That's required in this grammatical pattern ("'causative have").

I had my hair [cut / trimmed / done / blown dry / taken off].

CJ

Cool Breeze · Answer

I wouldn't say it's in the passive voice. I is the subject of the sentence, and had is an active verb form. In Finnish the difference wouldn't be so conspicuous.

I cut my hair. = Leikkasin hiukseni.
I had my hair cut. = Leikkautin hiukseni.

The subject need not be mentioned since the inflected form of the verb makes the grammatical subject clear. Similar one-word verbs exist for everything that one can have others do for them.

CB

RandomGuy · Answer

Cool BreezeI is the subject of the sentence, and had is an active verb form

Yes, but cut is clearly passive: I had my hair cut (by the barber), as opposed to I had the barber cut my hair.

Some would call these active/passive causative constructions.

I had my hair cut.

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