Have something done

What someone does for us

We usehave+ object + -edform when we talk about someone doing something for us which we ask or instruct them to do. It emphasises the process/action rather than who performs it:

Werehavingthe house painted next week.(We are not going to paint the house ourselves. Someone else will paint it. The emphasis is on the fact that the house is being painted rather than who is doing it.)

Warning:This pattern is not the same as the present perfect or past perfect.CompareIhadmy hair cut.Someone cut my hair.

Ive cutmy hair.Id cutmy hair.

I cut my own hair.

We can also usehave+ object+ -edform when something bad happens, especially when someone is affected by an action which they did not cause:

Theyvehadtheir car stolen.(They are affected by the action of the car being stolen but they did not cause this to happen.)

Hundreds of peoplehadtheir homes destroyed by the hurricane.(Hundreds of people were affected by the hurricane, which they did not cause.)

Asking or instructingWe use the patternhave+ object + infinitive withouttowhen we talk about instructing someone (underlined) to do something. We use it to emphasise who performed the action:

IllhaveHarrybook you a taxi.(I will instruct Harry to book a taxi for you. Emphasis is on who will do the action more than on the action.)

HehadKaymake us all some tea.

Talking about an experience

We usehave+ object+ -ingform or infinitive withouttoto talk about an event or experience. We use the -ingform for an event in progress and the infinitive withouttofor a completed event:

Wehada man singing to us as we sat in the restaurant having our meal.

Wehada strange woman come to the door selling pictures.

We can also use the -ingform to describe an ongoing action that someone or something is causing:

Her storyhadus laughing so much.(Her story was making us laugh.)

I justhadthem doing stretch routines, and after, they got really good at it.