TeachingEnglish
Difference between get and make smb do smth?
Submitted by Alex GCT-studio on 18 February, 2011 - 08:31
Hello, dear collegues!
We had a test with my advanced students several days ago. There is one sentence I`m doubting in. Can you help me?
Carrie doesn`t do her own washing, she _________ her little sister to do it for her.
a) makes
b) gets
c) lets
d) puts
My students chose 'a', though the teacher`s book gives only 'b'. The meaning in the dictionary is the same - to force smn to do smth. Is there any difference between these two phrases?
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The difference is more grammatical than lexical. Compare:
She makes her sister do her homework.
She gets her sister to do her homework.
However, there is a little connotational difference as well. If you make someone do something, it sounds more like an obligation, while get someone to do something sounds like the person has been persuaded or cajoled into doing it.
Hope this helps!
We say to make someone do something (used with the bare infinitive) but get someone to do something (to-infinitive is used).
(Although there are some other differences, this 'grammatical' one seems to be the one that was particularly tested in your case).
You need to firstly be well aware of the structure of both of these "Causative Verbs" I wouldn't talk about the one which is more or less forceful, but the structure used to construct the sentence. "Make" follows Infinitive verb without "TO" while "GET" follows Infinitive Verb with "TO"
For example,
I made him complete all assignments by due date.
I got him to complete all assignments by due date.
Thanks for making clear the difference. The problem I have is that I look in grammar books and I sometimes find different explanations so I have to consult more grammar books to take the best solution.
I believe the query was, in essence, which is the correct answer to this question 'a' or 'b'?
There is, of course an important grammatical difference but the difference in meaning is more to the point here.
Both 'a' and 'b' are correct answers.
'She made her sister do her washing' means she used force or a threat (a gun to her sister's head or threatening to tell Mum about her sister's boyfriend).
'She gets her sister to do her washing' means she uses reward (if you do my washing, I will cook the dinner/buy you a bottle of wine/take you to the party).
Thank you :-) "to" was a thing that slipped off my head :-) I should be more attentive.
But as for the meaning? This is a sentence from a dictionary:
I like him because he makes me laugh.
Does it mean that there is a gun to my head to make me laugh?????? Is it an obligation?
Sometimes words and phrases may have more than one (denotative) meaning.
Excerpts from Macmillan dictionary:
make someone do something
4 [TRANSITIVE] to cause someone or something to be in a particular state or to change to another state
This film always makes me cry.
5 [TRANSITIVE] to force someone to do something
They made us work for 12 hours a day.
They made him tell the truth by depriving him of food.
Your sentence is related to 4, as in other similar examples.
I especially like this vivid memorable example:
"Does this dress make me look fat?"
Cheers,
A
The correct answer in this test is"B" because after make and let we mustn't use "to" grammatical point of view is so.
Hi,
also we mustn't use "to" after the verbs - see, notice, observe, watch