Mr. Maru: Your house doesn't look very nice Sparky.

Sparky: Yep, it's a real fixer upper. I'm going to make my brother replace the windows.

Mr. Maru: Make? That's not very nice.

Sparky: Yeah, I'm going to get a carpenter to fix the fence too.

Mr. Maru: Sounds good. What about the carpet?

Sparky: I'll have my brother do that.

What is the difference between 'get' and 'have'? That is a good question. There are very small differences between these words. Let's go over them:

First, 'get' is usually used when we are persuading someone to do something. For example, Sparky's house is dirty. So, Sparky says to Mr. Maru 'I'll buy you lunch, if you clean my house.' Mr. Maru agrees and cleans Sparky's house. Sparky got Mr. Maru to clean his house.

When you use the following structure -

Sparky + got + Mr. Maru + to clean his house.

Subject + get + (indirect) object + to-infinitive

It usually means you are not paying for the service. You are persuading someone to do it. The following sentence is a little strange:

I got my barber to cut my hair.

This sounds like you got a free haircut. However, you can say the following:

I got my hair cut. (Subject + get + (direct) object + past participle)

This is a little different structure. We use this when the indirect object (the barber) is not important because we know it is probably the barber that cut your hair.

So, what is the difference with 'have'? When you use 'have', it sounds like you are asking someone to do something. For example, Sparky's grass is really long. Sparky asks Mr. Maru 'Can you mow my lawn?' Sparky had Mr. Maru mow his lawn.

Let's look at the structure:

Sparky + had + Mr. Maru + mow his lawn.

Subject + have + object + infinitive

Be careful! There is no 'to'. The following sentence is incorrect:

X Sparky had Mr. Maru to mow his lawn. (Bad sentence!)

When you use 'have', you usually have power over somebody. You do not need to persuade them. You are paying them to do something or you are in charge. For example, the teacher had his students write a report on chinchillas.

However, 'get' and 'have' can both be used in some situations:

I had my brother hang the wallpaper.

I got my brother to hang the wallpaper.

Now, it's your turn, can you correct Mr. Maru's and Sparky's dialog?  Try it in the comments below.