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Causative Verbs, as the name implies, are the verbs that express the idea of somebody causing someone to happen or causing another person to do something. In English, there are three true causative verbs, and they are:

However, there are other verbs that are similarly used as causative verbs, such as: cause, allow, help, enable, force, require, persuade, etc.

Let's focus on the true causative verbs first.

Means to allow someone to do something. Its form is let + object + base form of verb.

They let me drink some wine after the interview.

Is used when we arrange someone to do something. The form is have + object + past participle of verb. For example:

Get

In informal spoken English, get is used in place of have.

Please note that we use " have + object + base form of verb " when we talk about asking someone to do something. For instance:

We can also use get instead of have in informal spoken English, but the structure is get + object + to + base form of verb.

Means to force someone to do something. Its form is let + object + base form of verb.

Some common mistakes made by ESL learners are:

2. Using past simple tense of verb after let.

3. Using a singular form of verb after let.

Remember, we always use the base form of verb after let and make regardless of the verb tense and the subject.

Now, let's talk about the other verbs that can be used as causative verbs.

Means make (something, typically something bad) happen. The form is cause + object + to + base form of verb.

Their divorce caused them to sell their properties.

The provocation done by North Korea caused the UN to give them sanctions.

Means to give someone permission to do something. The meaning is similar to let but the form is different. The form is allow + to + base form of verb.

Means assist someone to do something.After help, we can use either to + base form of verb or just base form of verb, they are both correct and there is no difference in meaning, but without to is more common.

Means to give someone the authority to do something. The form is enable + object + to + base form of verb.

Means to make someone do something against their will. The form is force + object + to + base form of verb.

Penny forced Roger to marry her.

The lawyer will force the witness to tell the truth.

Means to order someone to do something. The form is require + to + base form of verb.

Means to make people to do or believe something by giving explanations. The form is persuade + object + to + base form of verb.

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Causative Verbs List, Examples... - MyEnglishTeacher.eu

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Causative Verbs, as the name implies, are the verbs that express the idea of somebody causing someone to happen or causing another person to do something. In English, there are three true causative verbs, and they are: However, there are other verbs that are similarly used as causative verbs, such as: cause, allow, help, enable, force, require, persuade, etc.

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The causatives are the verbs that are used to indicate that one person causes another person to do something for the first person. One can cause somebody to do something for him/her by asking, paying, requesting, or forcing the person.

Causative Verbs:

This kind of verbs constitutes different structures for their sentences.

Have
Structure 1: Structure 2:
Get
Structure 1: Structure 2:
Make

'Make' is stronger than 'have/get'. It constitutes only one structure as it does not take anything 'passive' as its object.

Note: According to the grammar rules and structures, there are two more similar verbs that are not causative verbs by definition but they constitute similar sentence structures.
Those two verbs are:
Let

'Let' means 'allow/permit' but the use of 'let' in the sentence is different from these words.
Structure:
The verb 'permit'/'allow' does not follow this structure. It follows the regular sentence pattern of English language.

Help

Help is not actually a causative verb either but is generally regarded as a causative verb because of its grammatical use in a sentence. It has two structures.
Structure 1: Structure 2:

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Causative Verbs : Structures & Examples | Learn English

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The causatives are the verbs that are used to indicate that one person causes another person to do something for the first person. One can cause somebody to do something for him/her by asking, paying, requesting, or forcing the person.

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Come up with a prompt that is appropriate for your student needs and have students write their emails. Alternatively, have students work on an email chain with a partner over the week which they can share with the class at the end of the unit.

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Teach students email structures appropriate to their needs (formal vs informal). Have students look at example emails and mark different parts of the email. Have students write emails.

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See previous week

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More on Level 4

* 170 words
* 90 seconds
* pre-int / int
* 7 page PDF
* 11 online quizzes
* 3 reading speeds
* 5 listening speeds

* See info on all levels.

More Activities
Speed Reading 5-Speed Listening Mini Lessons Discussion Questions Prepositions
Try These Lessons
Business English Environment People, Entertainment & Gossip Technology

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Breaking News English - Graded News Articles

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Graded news articles, ideas, online activities and printable handouts that save you time - for news English and current events lessons.

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See previous week

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Listen to the school assembly about how to study and do the exercises to practise and improve your listening skills.

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It's no surprise that many teachers don't feel confident about tackling it in the classroom. When teaching grammar or lexis, we find ways of making the language accessible to our learners. How then to do this with intonation?

Can I improve my own awareness of intonation?

What is intonation?
Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say. Without intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words.
Listen to somebody speaking without paying attention to the words: the 'melody' you hear is the intonation. It has the following features:

It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.

The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. Everybody has their own pitch range. Languages, too, differ in pitch range. English has particularly wide pitch range.

Awareness of intonation aids communication.

Incorrect intonation can result in misunderstandings, speakers losing interest or even taking offence!

In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'. The tonic-syllable is usually a high-content word, near the end of the unit.

Provide learners with models - don't be afraid to exaggerate your intonation.

Let students compare two examples of the same phrase, eg: varied/flat intonation, English / L1.

Ask students to have a 2-minute conversation in pairs as 'robots' (elicit the word using a picture if necessary), i.e. with no intonation. When they then go back to speaking 'normally', point out that the difference is made by intonation - this is what gives movement to our voices.

Wh-word questions: falling intonation

Question-Tags: 'chat' - falling; 'check' - rising

Lists: rising, rising, rising, falling

Get students to imitate my intonation, but without words, just humming.

The first thing is for learners to recognise the effect of intonation changes. I say the word 'bananas' - firstly with an 'interested' intonation (varied tone); then 'uninterested' (flat). Students identify the two and describe the difference. We then brainstorm attitudes, such as 'enthusiastic', 'bored', 'surprised', 'relieved'. I say 'bananas' for these. Students then do the same in pairs, guessing each other's attitude.

This can be developed by asking students to 'greet' everybody with a particular attitude. At the end, the class identify each person's attitude. For younger learners, I use 'Mr Men' characters (Miss Happy, Mr Grumpy, Miss Frightened, etc.) Each student is allocated a character and, as above, they greet the class with that character's voice.

These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning. Changing the intonation can completely change the meaning.

Example:

Say: 'It's raining'.

Now say it again using the same words, but giving it different meaning. You could say it to mean 'What a surprise!', or 'How annoying!',or 'That's great!'. There are many possibilities.

Why teach intonation?
Intonation exists in every language, so the concept we're introducing isn't new. However, learners are often so busy finding their words that intonation suffers. Yet intonation can be as important as word choice - we don't always realise how much difference intonation makes:

Though it's unlikely our learners will need native-speaker-level pronunciation, what they do need is greater awareness of intonation to facilitate their speaking and listening.

Can I improve my own awareness of intonation?
It's difficult to hear our own intonation. Choose somebody to listen to closely: as you listen, visualise the melody in your head, 'seeing' how it's divided into tone-units. Next time you do a class speaking activity, focus on your students' intonation. Are there students whose language is 'correct', but something doesn't sound right? Do they come across as boring or insincere? It may well be their pitch range isn't varied enough.

How I help my students
Awareness-raising
Some techniques I find useful for raising learners' awareness of intonation:

Intonation doesn't exist in isolation. So it makes sense to approach it together with other factors.

Intonation and grammar
Where patterns associating intonation and grammar are predictable, I highlight these to my students. I see these as starting-points, rather than rules.

Remember that intonation is relevant to any speaking activity, and makes interesting remedial/revision work.

Remember that students don't always have to 'know' we're focusing on intonation: every time I drill phrases they're hearing intonation models.

Provide realistic and clear contexts.

Avoid going into theory.

Help students find patterns / rules-of-thumb, wherever possible.

Use a consistent system for marking intonation on the board for example: arrow for tone; tonic-syllable in CAPITALS; double lines ( // ) for tone-unit boundaries.

Keep it positive and don't expect perfection. The last thing I'd want is to make my students so anxious about their intonation that they stop speaking!

Some examples are:

When practising these constructions, I include activities focusing specifically on intonation.

For example, Question-Tags: Students in groups are assigned jobs to mime to each other. Students make notes about what they think each person's job is. They then have to check they've understood the jobs: Students use rising/falling intonation question-tags depending how sure they are: 'You're a pilot, aren't you?'. At the end, students confirm their jobs.

Intonation and attitude
It's important that students are aware of the strong link between intonation and attitude, even if it's difficult to provide rules here.

Intonation and discourse

Learners' also need awareness of intonation in longer stretches of language. Here, we can give our learners clearer guidelines: 'new' information = fall tone; 'shared' knowledge = 'fall-rise'.

A simple shopping dialogue demonstrates this:

SK: Can I help you?
C: I'd like a chocolate (fall) ice-cream.
SK: One chocolate (fall-rise) ice-cream. Anything else?
C: One strawberry (fall) ice-cream.
SK: One chocolate (fall-rise), one strawberry (fall-rise). Anything else?
C: Yes. One chocolate (fall-rise), one strawberry (fall-rise), and one vanilla (fall).

Higher level students can identify the 'new' / 'shared' information, and then practise reading accordingly.

With lower level students, we memorise the dialogue together. Although I don't refer to intonation directly, I use my hands to indicate it (fall = hand pointing down; fall-rise = down then up). Students then prepare their own dialogues. I've found my learners pick up these patterns very quickly.

Conclusion
When working on intonation in the classroom I:

Further reading
Sound Foundationsby Adrian Underhill
Pronunciationby Dalton and Seidlholfer
How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly
Teaching English Pronunciationby Joanne Kenworthy

Marta J. Sabbadini, British Council, Cameroon

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It's no surprise that many teachers don't feel confident about tackling it in the classroom. When teaching grammar or lexis, we find ways of making the language accessible to our learners. How then to do this with intonation? Can I improve my own awareness of intonation? What is intonation?