difference between passive and causative?

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

Moderator: Alan

Locked
sftaa
Member
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:15 am
Status: Learner of English

difference between passive and causative?

Post by sftaa »

Hi,

Anyone can please explain the difference in passive and causative with one or two examples

Thankd & Regards
User avatar
Alan
Teacher/Moderator
Teacher/Moderator
Posts: 15204
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
Status: Teacher of English
Location: Japan

Re: difference between passive and causative?

Post by Alan »

A PASSIVE construction is one in which something IS DONE to something or somebody, e.g.

The windows were broken by these boys.

A CAUSATIVE construction is one in which someone/somethings MAKES or LETS somebody/something do smth., e.g.

She made the children go to bed early.

In order to qualify as a true causative, the dependent infinitive (here 'go') must not be preceded by 'to', irrespective of overall semantic equivalence, hence

She forced the children to go to bed early.

despite meaning the same as that above does not exemplify a causative construction.
Locked