What are active causative verbs?
We use this structure when someone causes something to happen, or when that person causes another to take an action. For example: Airport security had everyone remove their shoes. The professor made his students give an oral presentation. In both cases, the subject of each sentence (airport security and the professor) caused another action to happen (removing shoes and giving an oral presentation). These are active causatives. What is the sentence structure? Active causatives use the following structure: subject | causative verb | agent | bare infinitive -or- to-infinitive | object/complement The police | had | the witness | identify | the thief. The HR Department | made | all staff | attend | the time management seminar. The agent is the person/thing to whom is caused to take an action, such as: The police had the witness identify the thief. Here, the witness is the agent of the sentence. It’s also important to note that some causative verbs require the bare infinitive, namely when us
