Turkish/Causative
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 | açtırmak |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| içirmek | to make someone drink |
| kaçırmak | to miss, to make someone flee, to kidnap |
| pişirmek | to cook |
| şişirmek | to inflate |
| taşırmak | to spill |
| uçurmak | 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.
