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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Passive causitive

They made him tell them all the story.
He was made to tell them all the story.

Can this type of passive causative above be used for the "have" and "get" causative forms? Are the sentences below correct? Does they sound natural?

I had the man repair.my car.
The man was had to repair my car.

I got the taxi driver to carry my bag.
The taxi driver was got to carry my bag.
  

Top answer

No, those are not possible.

  • No, those are not possible.
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6 Answers
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No, those are not possible.
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I understand, thank you. I think that, for this type of passive structure of the "have" and "get" causative forms, I should use "make" form, so can I say "The man was made to repair my car" and "The taxi driver was made to carry my bag" for those sentences?
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Anonymousso can I say "The man was made to repair my car" and "The taxi driver was made to carry my bag" for those sentences?
Those constructs seldom occur. They can be confused with non-causative infinitive complements.

This shirt was made to fit me. (I did not force the shirt to fit my body.)
The taxi driver was made to carry my bag. (This tax
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I see that this type of passive structure is possible (so "The man was made to repair my car" and "The taxi driver was made to carry my bag" can be said for those sentences) but it occurs seldom, and yes, I can see just now that it can be confused with non-causative infinitive complements. So I think we shouldn't use "make" form for this type of passive structure of the "have" and "get" forms. Tha
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I wouldn't personally go quite so far as to say that "made to do something" in the passive causative sense "seldom" occurs. To me it seems familiar enough in contexts where that meaning is expected. However, no doubt there are cases where the other interpretation could intrude or confuse.
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Yes I think that the "made to do something" sentence in the passive causative sense occurs in some ways sometimes but not seldom, yes it seems familiar enough. Generally, I think that, if the subject of a "made to do something" sentence is a person, it is very likely that this sentence is the passive causative sense, and if the subject of a "made to do something" sentence is a thing, it is very li

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