oxford_guide_to_english_grammar

13 THE PASSIVE
PAGE 140
3 Overview
With a participle
With an infinitive
Active Someone saw him running away. Someone saw him run away.
Passive He was seen running away. He was seen to run away.
111 Patterns with have and get
1 The active: have/get + object + infinitive
This pattern means 'cause someone to do something'. Have takes a bare infinitive
and get a to-infinitive.
I had the garage service my car.
I got the garage to service my car.
This active pattern with have is more common in the USA than in Britain, where it
is rather formal. Get is informal.
2 The passive: have/get + object + passive participle
This pattern means 'cause something to be done'.
I had my car serviced.
I got my car serviced.
This means that I arranged for someone, for example a garage, to service my car; I
did not service it myself. We use this pattern mainly to talk about professional
services to a customer.
You should have/get the job done professionally.
I had/got the machine repaired only last week.
We're having/getting a new kitchen fitted.
Where did you have/get your hair cut?
Both have and get are ordinary verbs which can be continuous (are having/are
getting) and which take the auxiliary do (did... have/get...?) Get is more informal
than have.
NOTE
a Compare these two patterns with had.
had something done: We had a burglar alarm fitted (by a security company) some
time ago.
Past perfect:
We had fitted a burglar alarm (ourselves) some time before that.
b We can use get informally meaning 'cause oneself to do something' or 'get on with a job'.
I must get my homework done. We finally got everything packed into suitcases.
Here it is the subject (1, we) who must do the homework and who packed the suitcases.
3 Have meaning 'experience'
We can use the same pattern with have meaning 'experience something', often
something unpleasant. The subject is the person to whom something happens.
We had a window broken in the storm.
My sister has had some money stolen.