Turkish/Causative

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The causative voice is the second productive voice in Turkish. It is very productive, meaning almost any verb can receive it. It is used to make an intransitive verb transitive, or to make an already transitive verb causative.

Formation[edit | edit source]

The causative voice is quite irregular compared to other features of Turkish grammar. The main ending used for this is -dır-, with respect to 4-way vowel harmony as well as consonant harmony.

yazdırmak tırmak
gezdirmek seçtirmek
koydurmak kusturmak
öldürmek söktürmek

Verbs with more than one syllable that end in a vowel, r or l take the ending -t instead.

uzatmak soğutmak
oturtmak kısaltmak

This doesn't apply to verbs with a single syllable.

aldırmak
durdurmak
yedirmek

There are around 30 irregular monosyllabic words that take a different ending instead.

batırmak to sink
bitirmek to end
doğurmak to give birth, to spawn
doyurmak to make someone full
duyurmak to announce
düşürmek to drop
geçirmek to pass
irmek to make someone drink
kaçırmak to miss, to make someone flee, to kidnap
pişirmek to cook
şişirmek to inflate
taşırmak to spill
urmak to fly
yatırmak to lay down
akıtmak to make something flow
korkutmak to scare
sarkıtmak to dangle something
ürkütmek to scare
çıkarmak to eject
koparmak to break off
çökertmek to collapse
emzirmek to breastfeed

Finally, there are some verbs with totally irregular causative forms.

dağılmak dağıtmak
gelmek getirmek
gitmek götürmek
görmek göstermek
ısınmak ısıtmak
kalmak bırakmak
kalkmak kaldırmak
olmak etmek or yapmak
öğrenmek öğretmek
yanmak yakmak

Compound verbs with olmak use etmek as their causative form. When olmak means "to become", yapmak is used as its causative form instead, but old publications may use etmek and kılmak as well.

Takımımız mağlup oldu. Karşı takımı mağlup ettik.
Büyüyünce öğretmen olacağım. Seni büyüyünce öğretmen yapacağız.

Combining with other suffixes[edit | edit source]

The causative suffix may combine with any other verbal suffix, and always comes first before any other suffixes.

  • Yaptırılınca
  • Söyletilemeyebilirmiş

Usage[edit | edit source]

The causative is used to express that the subject isn't doing the action by themselves, but causing someone else to do it. It can be translated to English as let someone do, have something done, make someone do.

With intransitive verbs[edit | edit source]

Intransitive verbs become transitive in the causative voice. The object, which is in accusative, is the thing actually performing the action, while the subject is merely causing the object to do the action.

  • Bu film beni kusturacak. This film will make me throw up.
  • Kedim tavşanımı öldürmüş. My cat has killed my rabbit.

With transitive verbs[edit | edit source]

Transitive verbs in the causative voice take two objects instead. The real object is marked in accusative, and the entity performing the action is in the dative.

  • Öğretmenin karneni bana okuttu. Your teacher has made me read your school report.
  • Ahmet sodasını bir yabancıya açtırdı. Ahmet made some stranger open his bottle of soda.

Double causative verbs[edit | edit source]

While it is very possible to attach the causative voice suffix twice to mean make someone make someone else do something, in casual speech, multiple causative endings may be attached to a verb for absolutely no reason whatsoever. This is especially preferred when the causee is expressed using a dative object.

  • Ödevini bana yaptırtma. Don't make me do your homework.
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