Understanding Grammar: Causative Forms & Reflexive Pronouns

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: In this week’s roleplay we are doing some DIY.

Jack: DIY stands for do it yourself and it’s when you repair, make, and decorate things in your own home.

Rowan: All three of us are doing some DIY in the roleplay and you’ll find out who is best at it.

Rich: You’ll hear the roleplay in three parts and after each part, we will look at some language. This week we’re going to focus on how we use get and have as causative verbs. You need these verbs when you pay other people do something for you.

Jack: And we’ll also look at reflexive pronouns like myself and yourself and how we use them.

Rowan: Your task this week is to tell us whether you prefer to do things yourself or get other people to do things in your home.

Rich: And more importantly if you’ve ever had any DIY disasters - I know I’ve had plenty!  

Jack: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rowan: On the Premier Skills English website, you’ll find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete with other listeners.

Rich: Before we do the roleplays let’s look back at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase 

Jack: OK, our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Rowan: When you know the answer, go to the podcast page on the Premier Skills English website and write the word or phrase in the comments. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Rich: Thanks for all your answers last week. The first listener with the correct answer was Daniel Baron from Colombia. Well done Daniel!

Jack: And congratulations to these other listeners who also got the correct answer to our football phrase: MoBeckham and HSN from Turkey, WSanta from Argentina, Mohamed Kuna from Sudan, Hayato from Japan, Liubomyr and Alex from Ukraine, Marco Zapien, from Mexico, and Emmanuel from France.  

Rowan: If you didn’t hear last week’s football phrase, we’re going to give you one more chance to guess now. And later on, at the end of the podcast, we’ll tell you the answer. Are you ready?

Rich: Last week’s football phrase was **** **. This phrase is used when there has been a foul on the pitch but advantage is played by the referee. The referee indicates this advantage by holding both arms out in front to indicate to both teams that they can **** ** - they can continue.

Jack: Last week’s podcast was about well-being and looking after yourself.

Rowan: And in last week’s task we asked you what you do to look after yourself.

Rich: HSN from Turkey had lots of sound advice. He said it’s important to disconnect and also to think about yourself and your own well-being. He said that we should accept that sadness and disappointment are part of reality, that it’s not possible to be happy all the time. I agree with HSN on this, this is important to remember.

Jack: Vic from Mexico said treating himself to a coffee as well as taking his dog for a walk as part of his daily routine is important for his mental health. I couldn’t agree with you more, Vic!

Rowan: Thanks for all your comments and answers. If you haven’t heard this podcast it’s called Well-Being 1: Looking after yourself ... and you can find it on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple Podcasts.

Introduction to rolelplay

Rich: As we said earlier, in this week’s roleplay the three of us are doing some DIY. After each part, we will look at some language for you to learn or revise.

Jack: You’re about to listen to the first part of the roleplay. I’m just finishing some work in the kitchen when Rich and Rowan arrive.

Rowan: While you listen we want you to answer a question.

Rich: The question is: Which rooms do Rowan and I want to decorate?

Roleplay: Part 1

Rich: Jack?

Rich: Hey, Jack. Your door was open. Have you finished?

Jack: Nearly. I was just finishing up. Just need to finish this and I’ll be right with you.

Rowan: He’s done a good job in here, hasn’t he?

Rich: He’s a bit of a DIY expert is Jack. He’s always putting something up or pulling something down.

Jack: There we go. All done. What do you think?

Rowan: It looks great. Have you done it all yourself?

Jack: Well, I got the tiles done by a builder and I had the wiring done by an electrician, it’s a bit dangerous for me but I’ve done the rest of the work, yes.

Rich: You’ve even fitted the lights and done the plastering yourself?

Jack: It’s not too difficult if you watch a couple of YouTube videos first.

Rowan: We need to get our living room decorated soon - it’s looking pretty shabby. Probably just needs a lick of paint and a bit of TLC.

Rich: I’m thinking of getting one of our upstairs bedrooms done. Are you free next weekend, Jack?

Jack: I’m not going to come round to decorate for you, Rich! But come on guys you don’t need to get someone in to do a bit of decorating. You should do it yourself.

Rowan: I’m not so sure. I’ve not really done much DIY before.

Rich: It’s not that I can’t do it. I’m pretty good with a paintbrush. It’s just time - not enough time.

Jack: The football season finishes this weekend - you’re gonna have loads of time. I tell you what, let’s make it a competition. Rowan - you do up your living room and Rich you decorate your bedroom. I’ll give you two weeks then we’ll have a look at what you’ve done. I’ll be the judge and decide the winner.

Rowan: OK, I’m up for that. What do you reckon Rich?

Rich: Sure, a fortnight is plenty of time. You’re on!

Language Focus 1

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: Which rooms do Rich and I want to decorate?

Jack: Rich is going to decorate his bedroom and Rowan is going to decorate her living room. The competition is for them both to do some decorating and then I’ll judge who is the best at DIY.

Rich: It’ll be a piece of cake.

Rowan: Let’s look at the language. We’re looking at grammar this week and in this first part, we’re going to look at how we use the causative verbs ‘get’ and ‘have’ to talk about other people doing things for us.

Jack: We use causative verbs when someone is the cause of an action, but doesn’t actually do the action themselves.

Rich: The most common example I can think of is getting your hair cut. I don’t cut my own hair, I go to a hairdresser’s and the hairdresser or the barber cuts my hair.

Jack: When did you last get your hair cut, Rich?

Rich: The last time I got my hair cut was about a year ago. It’s getting really long.

Rowan: When did you last have your hair cut, Jack?

Jack: The last time I had my hair cut was a long, long time ago. I cut my own hair.

Rowan: Rich and Jack are not perfect examples here because they don’t get their hair cut very often but hopefully you can see the grammatical pattern when we speak about getting other people to do things for us

Rich: First, we use a causative verb - such as get and have - and we then say the object and then the past participle - the third form of the verb.

Rowan: Listen for the verb followed by the object followed by the past participle: I got my hair cut last week.

Jack: There is no difference in meaning between the two verbs - have and get. Get is much more common, it’s a little more informal, too.

Rich: In the roleplay, we used a few examples of this structure. Have a listen to them now to see how we spoke other people doing things for us:

Rowan: It looks great. Have you done it all yourself?

Jack: Well, I got the tiles done by a builder and I had the wiring done by an electrician - a bit dangerous that but I’ve done the rest of the work, yes.

Rich: These forms are similar to the passive because it’s not important who did the action. We can say who did it in the same way as when we use the passive. We just add the preposition by and then the person or thing that did the action.

Jack: I said: I got the tiles done by a builder and I had the wiring done by an electrician. Here are a couple more examples from the roleplay. You’ll notice this time we don’t say who did the action. Why do you think they don’t say who will do the decorating?

Rowan: We need to get our living room decorated soon - it’s looking pretty shabby.

Rich: I’m thinking of getting one of our upstairs bedrooms done. Are you free next weekend, Jack?

Jack: We can’t be certain but it’s either not important or obvious who’s going to do the action so we omit the phrase by the decorators or by the painter.

Rowan: You can find more exercises about this on the Premier Skills English website but now I think it’s time to move on to the second part of our roleplay.

Rich: It’s two weeks later and we’re at Rowan’s house. Jack is going to judge how Rowan has got on with the decorating.

Jack: While you listen we want you to answer a question.

Rowan: The question is: Who do you think Rich is speaking to on the phone?

Roleplay: Part 2

Jack: How do you reckon Rowan’s got on then with her DIY?

Rich: She said that she doesn’t do do it yourself. I can’t imagine she’s done too much by herself - we’ll see that I’ve done a better job - I’m sure of it.

Jack: I wouldn’t be so overconfident - she asked to borrow my belt sander the other day and I’ve sent her a few tutorial videos that I’ve used myself.

Rich: You’re helping. That’s not fair.

Rowan: Hey guys.

Rich: How are you doing?

Rowan: I’ve had a really busy weekend. I’ve been painting, decorating, I’ve put up shelves and I’ve even had a go at a bit of plastering - all by myself.

Rich: Plastering? Really?

Jack: And you’ve done it all yourself?

Rowan: Of course, I have. I found it much easier than I thought I would, to be honest.

Rich: It looks all right I suppose.

Jack: All right? It looks fantastic! You’ve done a brilliant job.

Rowan: Shall we get ourselves a nice cup of tea and I’ll tell you exactly what I’ve done.

Jack: Rich? Rich?

Rich: No, no, don’t tell them we can do it ourselves. Tell them to get it done quickly and get them out of there. We’ll be there in an hour or so.

Jack: Who are you speaking to?

Rich: No-one - nothing - just someone trying to sell me something. A cup of tea? That’d be lovely. I’ll make it - the kettle’s not going to boil itself.

Language Focus 2

Jack: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: Who do you think Rich was speaking to on the phone?

Rich: We’re not going to tell you now because we want you to listen to the final part of the roleplay.

Jack: It sounds like he’s up to no good!

Rich: What me? Never!

Rowan: Let’s look at some more language. We’re going to have a look at reflexive pronouns - we used them quite a few times in the roleplay you’ve just heard.

Jack: Reflexive pronouns are words such as myself, yourself, and themself in the singular form and ourselves and themselves in the plural.

Rich: We’re speaking about DIY in this week’s roleplay. DIY stands for Do It Yourself.

Rowan: We use reflexive pronouns in a few different ways. Let’s look at a basic example first. Listen.

Jack: I hurt myself when I fell off my bike.

Rich: Here the reflexive pronoun is a direct object as it’s the same as the subject of the verb. Myself is the same as I. We could talk about other individual people using the same example. Listen:

Rowan: They hurt themself when they fell off the bike.

Jack: She hurt herself when she fell off the bike.

Rich: He hurt himself when he fell off the bike.

Rowan: In the roleplay, I said: ‘Shall we get ourselves a nice cup of tea’ and Rich said ‘don’t tell them we can do it ourselves’.

Jack: One common mistake to avoid is when someone asks you how you are feeling. ‘How are you feeling today, Rich?’

Rich: I’m feeling good.

Jack: That’s the correct answer. We never say ‘I’m feeling myself. - I’m feeling myself good’. It’s a common mistake but it’s wrong in more ways than one.

Rowan: Another way we use reflexive pronouns is to show that you did something without any help. We usually use the preposition ‘by’ when we do this but not always.

Rich: There were a couple of examples in the roleplay listen for the reflexive pronouns. Do we use the preposition by or not?

Rowan: I’ve had a really busy weekend. I’ve been painting, decorating, I’ve put up shelves and I’ve even had a go at a bit of plastering - all by myself.

Rich: Plastering? Really?

Jack: And you’ve done it all yourself?

Rowan: There are a few ways to talk about doing something without any help. We can do it ourselves or by ourselves like in the example or we can use the phrase on my own or you can say I did something alone.

Rich: There are more ways to use reflexive pronouns and we’ve got an activity on the website for you to check your understanding and a link to more resources about this area of grammar.

Jack: Let’s get back to our roleplay. You’re about to listen to the final part of the roleplay. We’re now at Rich’s house and we’re going to find out who wins our DIY competition.

Rowan: While you listen we want you to answer a question.

Rich: The question is: Who is declared DIY champion and why?

Roleplay: Part 3

Rich: Here we are. Are you ready to be amazed by my DIY skills?

Jack: Well, your front door still works so that’s a good start.

Rowan: Do you always leave all this stuff on your driveway? It’s a bit messy.

Rich: No, I need to get them to take it away er … I mean I need to take it away later - get rid of it. Come, come in.

Jack: Wow! Look at this place! It’s so different. You’ve done such a good job - you’ve put in a new floor! You did that yourself? You didn’t get someone in to do it?

Rich: No, all my own handy work. I’m not the only one who can watch a few YouTube videos.

Rowan: But you had an electrician do the wiring, right?

Rich: Of course not, that would be cheating. I can deal with electrics, unlike Jack.

Rowan: I’ll get it for you.

Decorator: Sorry, we left a few tools earlier. I need to pick them up. We were asked to leave rather quickly.

Rowan: Er … sorry who are you?

Rich: Nothing - let me deal with this … yes, if we could speak outside a moment … sorry about this  … excuse me.

Rich: Sorry, just door-to-door sales.

Rowan: Door-to-door sales my left foot! You’ve only gone and got a decorator in. You are such a cheat. He’s such a cheat!

Rich: What can I say? I’ve never been into DIY. Come on then let’s get this over and done with.

Jack: Rich - you are disqualified from the competition and I declare Rowan the DIY Champion.

Language Focus 3 

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: Who is declared DIY Champion and why?

Jack: Well the answer is Rowan. Rowan did an excellent job decorating her living room and Rich - well Rich cheated - he didn’t do anything, he got someone else to do everything for him.

Rowan: You big cheat Rich.

Rich: Let’s quickly move on to some more language. Earlier we spoke about how we use the structure to get or have something done to talk about other people doing things for us.

Rowan: Things like: I’m going to get my hair cut on Saturday or I need to get my living room decorated.

Jack: There are some other ways to talk about people doing things for us and we used a couple of these in the final part of the roleplay.

Rich: One alternative phrase that we might use is to get someone to do something or to get someone in to do something.

Jack: You might want to get someone to fix your computer or get someone in to look at a blocked drain or something.

Rowan: Or we can use to have someone do something. This is the same meaning but we don’t use ‘to do’.

Rich: You might have someone fix your computer or have someone look at a blocked drain.

Jack: We used both of these phrases in the roleplay. Have a listen:

Jack: Wow! Look at this place! It’s so different. You’ve done such a good job - you’ve put in a new floor! You did that yourself? You didn’t get someone in to do that?

Rich: No, all my own handy work. I’m not the only one who can watch a few YouTube videos.

Rowan: But you had an electrician do the wiring, right?

Jack: We’ve spoken a lot about the word get today - getting something done, getting someone in, getting someone to do something. There was also an idiom near the end of the roleplay. Rich said ‘let’s get this over and done with’.

Rich: Ahh, yes! To get something over and done with means to finish something that’s usually not nice as soon as possible.

Rowan: Rich wanted Jack to announce the results of our competition straight away because he knew he’d lost - the cheat!

Jack: OK, we’ve looked at lots of language in our roleplay and we have lots of extra materials on the website to help you study and understand. We have the transcript and activities with further examples so we hope to see you there.

TASK

Rowan: In this week’s task, we want you to tell us whether you prefer getting people to do things in your house like Rich.

Rich: Or you prefer DIY - doing things yourself, like Rowan and Jack.

Jack: Why do you prefer to get things done by others? Is it because you haven’t got time or maybe they do a better job?

Rowan: Why do you prefer to do things yourself? Is it because you enjoy DIY or you get a sense of achievement when you’ve done it or is it because it’s cheaper to do it yourself?

Rich: And let us know if you’ve ever had a DIY disaster. I remember hanging a picture on a wall once and the whole wall came down. I then had to pay someone to come and fix the mess I’d made.

Jack: Disaster! Write all your answers in the comments section and try to use a few of the words and phrases we’ve looked at in this podcast.

Football Phrase

Rowan: It’s time for this week’s football phrase. This week’s phrase comes from MoBeckham in Turkey. Thanks for the phrase MoBeckham.

Rich: The phrase might not be exactly the same as what MoBeckham intended but let’s see.

Jack: This week’s football phrase is ***** ******. The phrase describes a person who supports a team that is currently successful. A ***** ****** might change the team they support if another club becomes more successful.
These fans support successful teams so they can gloat at the end of the season.

Rowan: I’m going to give a couple of clues for this phrase. We’re looking for two words; the first word is similar to success and the second word is a person who shoots tiny, little, furry animals.

Rich: Let’s see if a few more of you can get this football phrase right and who is first this week. And if you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was play on.

Jack: If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.

Rowan: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Rich: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Jack: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Rowan: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!