This time in our structure help we talk about the difference between, ‘do something’ and ‘have something done’. It’s an important difference that tells the listener who performed the action. If you do something; write a report for example, you do the action. On the other hand, if you ‘have something done’; if you ‘have the report written’, you don’t do it yourself, but ask, pay, instruct or perhaps order another person to do it. For more difficult activities, it common to have them done by another person who is more experienced in that activity. So for example, you probably won’t replace the tyre if you’re the pilot, you’ll probably ‘have the tyre replaced’ by a mechanic, a person who is more familiar with that kind of job. In the ‘have something done’ structure the verb ‘have’ determines the time reference, so it’s possible you had something done or that you will have something done. Check out the diagram for more information and read the extra examples below.
Extra examples
He irons his shirt.
He has his shirt ironed. (Perhaps the hotel organises this action)
She removed the passenger from the flight.
She had the passenger removed from the flight. (Perhaps the police did this action)
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