Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to focus on the expression HAVE something DONE in English. This is a very common expression but it is often confusing for English students. It has a passive meaning and it means that someone does something for us, either because we can’t do it or we don’t know how to do it. Let’s find out more…

Let’s start with a simple example to see what I mean. If I have a new haircut, my students often say to me: “You cut your hair!” But I have to say no, because this sentence is wrong in English. It doesn’t make much sense really!

Firstly, I don’t know how to cut hair. I have never learnt how to cut hair, I’m not a barber or a hairdresser, right? I’m an English teacher! Secondly, have you ever tried to cut your own hair? I think it’s very difficult, right? I don’t think the result would be good!

So the correct sentence is “I HAD my hair CUT”. “I HAD my hair CUT”. This means another person did it for me. So you say TO HAVE something DONE. You can use it for anything that another person does for you, because it’s difficult for you to do, you don’t want to do it, or you don’t have the necessary skills to do it.

Here are some more examples. I HAD my car FIXED. I don’t know how to fix cars myself. I HAD my house PAINTED. It’s a difficult job and I don’t want to do it myself. And every month, I HAVE my hair CUT, because I can’t do it myself!

There is another way you could say this. You could say GET something DONE. It means exactly the same thing. So I GOT my car FIXED, I GOT my house PAINTED, and every month, I GET my hair CUT.

So what do you HAVE DONE? Go to ANGLOPOD.COM and tell us in the comments. Unfortunately, learning English is something you can’t HAVE DONE, right? You have to do it yourself! See you soon!

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