moods > Turkish Causative Mood - "to have to"

Turkish Causative Mood

The active form of the verb gives the sense of: "doing something" and the passive form "something is being done".

The Causative sense is "to have something done by somebody, to get something done by something."

In the case where English uses "get done by" or "to have done by" Turkish uses the Causative form of the verb.

• The Active Verb
  I'm going to clean the car
  [to clean it myself]
• The Causative Form
  I'll get John to clean the car
  [to get, to cause John to clean it.]

Tukish Causative Uses

One of the duties of the Causative is to make a Transitive Verb (which takes an Object) out of an Intransitive Verb (which has no Object).

• Active Verb
  pişmek [piş-mek]
  to cook (by itself)
• [intransitive - no object]
[i.e. The eggs are cooking in the pan.]

• Cuasative Verb
  pişirmek [pişirmek]
  to cook something
• [transitive - with object]
  
• "to cook" is transitive:
  Ali [the subject] is cooking the eggs [the object]

In these examples some of the active forms are intransitive whilst their causative form is the transitive Verb.

This is the reason that the Turkish verb for to eat is yemek yemek

The first yemek means food and the second yemek means to eat

• Yemek to eat is a transitive verb in Turkish so it needs an object.
• Ali, lokantada yemek yiyor.
  Ali is eating food in the cafe.
• Turkish must supply an object yemek food for the verb yemek to eat
• The English verb to eat can be transitive or intransitive.
• Intansitive:
  Ali is eating in the cafe.
• Transitive:
  Ali is eating breakfast (obj.) in the cafe.

• The Intransitive verb:
  durmak [dur-mak]
  to halt (by itself) is such a word.
• Araba caddede durdu.
  The car stopped in the street.
• There is no object in the sentence.
  It is intransitive.
• The Transitive verb:
  durdurmak [dur-dur-mak]
  to stop sb. is such a word:
• Mehmet, arabayı caddede durdurdu
  Mehmet stopped the car in the street.

• The object in this sentence is arabyı the car.
  It is transitive.

Turkish Causative Verb Formation

The causative verb stem is usually formed by adding:
‑dir‑ / ‑tir‑ ‑dır‑ / ‑tır‑ ‑dur‑ / ‑tur‑ ‑dür ‑/ ‑tür‑

The suffix follows vowel Harmony Rules and is subject to consonant mutation.

The resulting causative new verb stem can have all mood and tense endings added as required.

Most verbs are regular in their causative formation:

• bakmak to look
  [Active Verb Stem]
• baktırmak to cause to look
  [Causative Verb Stem]
• Bize arkamıza baktırdılar.
  They made us look behind (us)

• itmek to push
• ittirmek to cause to push
• Koltuğu geri ittirdim.
  I had the seat pushed backwards.

• koşmak to run
• koşturmak to cause to run
• Kamyonete bağladıkları atı kilometrelerce koşturdular.
  They ran the horse tied to the lorry for kilometers.

• satmak to sell
• sattırmak to cause to sell
• Ekonomik Bunalımdan fabrika sattırdılar.
  They Had the factoy sold due to he Economic Depession.

• gülmek to laugh
• ona güldüm
  I laughed at him
• bana güldü
  He laughed at me

• güldürmek to make laugh
• onu güldürdüm
  I made him laugh
• beni güldürdü
  He made me laugh

• bilmek to know
• onu biliyorum
  I know that.

• bildirmek to make known
• Mehmed' e haberi bildirdik
  We made the news known to Mehmet

• çalışmak to work
• Bugün çalışıyorum
  I am working today

• çalıştırmak to cause to work
• Bugün, arabamyla Mehmet'i çalıştırıyorum
  Today, I am getting Mehmet to work on my car.

• unutmak to forget
• Çantamı unuttum
  I forgot my bag

• unutturmak to cause to forget
• Mehmed'e çantasını unutturduk
  We've let Mehmet forget his bag.

Turkish Causative Verbs Extended with Verb Moods

• Potential Causative Verb Stem
  onu güldürebilirsiniz
  you can make her laugh
• beni güldüremeyecek
  he will not be able to make me laugh
• bizi güldüremediler
  they couldn't make us laugh

• Necessitative Causative Verb Stem
  Mehmet seni güldürmeliydi.
  Mehmet should have made you laugh.
• onu yaptırmalıyım.
  I should have it done.

Turkish Irregular Causative Forms

The Formation of the Turkish Causative is one area where there is some irregularity in the language.

• 1. Basic verb Stems ending in a vowel or -r form their causative by the addition of the suffix -t to produce the causative verb stem:
•  
• oturmak to sit
  [Active Verb Stem]
• oturtmak to seat somebody
  [Causative Verb Stem]
•  
• anlamak to understand
• anlatmak to make understand
  [ENG: to explain]
•  
• boyamak to paint
• boyatmak to get / have something painted

2. Single Syllable Verbs - Causative Formation

Some single syllable verbs form their causative by the addition of -ır

i.e The initial -d/-t of the causative verb sign is dropped.

This generally happens when the basic verb stem terminates in -ç or -ş but there are other verbs included in this group.

Some verbs which end in -ç or -ş take the full -tir suffix.

The problem of these irregularities is not too great as the number of verbs involved is quite small although some of them are fairly common.

These verbs are best learned separately.

Irregular Single Syllable Causative Verb Stems

Basic Verb		Causative Verb
artmak	to increase	artırmak	to cause to increase
batmak	to sink	batırmak	to cause to sink
bitmek	to finish	bitirmek	to finish off
doğmak	to be born	doğurmak	to give birth
doymak	to be filled	doyurmak	to fill up s.o.
düşmek	to fall	düşürmek	to cause to fall/to drop s.o
geçmek	to pass	geçirmek	to cause to pass
göçmek	to move / migrate	göçürmek	to evict
içmek	to drink/smoke	içirmek	to cause to drink
kaçmak	to escape	kaçırmak	to miss/let escape
pişmek	to cook (by itself)	pişirmek	to cook something
şaşmak	to be surprised	şaşırmak	to surpise s.o.
şişmek	to swell	şişirmek	to cause to swell
taşmak	to overflow	taşırmak	to cause to overflow
uçmak	to fly	uçurmak	to cause to fly

• 3. A few verbs ending in -k take -ıt as their causative sign.
•  
• akmak to flow
  [Active Verb Stem]
• akıtmak to cause to flow
  [Causative Verb Stem]
•  
• sarkmak to hang down
• sarkıtmak to hang s.o. up
•  
• ürkmek to have a scare
• ürkütmek to startle
•  

• 4. There are few verbs which take -ar or -er as their causative sign.
• çıkmak to go out / to exit
  [Active Verb Stem]
• çıkarmak to take out
  [ENG: to extract]
[Causative Verb Stem]
•  
• gitmek to go
• gidermek to send away / to remove
•  
• kopmak to snap itself
• koparmak to break s.o.off
•  
• onmak to mend
• onarmak to have repaired
•  

• 5. One verb is completely irregular.
•  
• görmek to see
  [Active Verb Stem]
• göstermek to show
  [Causative Verb Stem]

All these are common verbs and should be learnt as irregularities

Causative Verb differences in English

In the translation of the Turkish Causative a different verb may be used in English.

It is sometimes it is difficult to select the correct English verb in translation from Turkish.

The causative of bilmek "to know" in Turkish →
bildirmek "to make know, to cause to know".

In English this may be "to notify, to publish, etc."

This difference in English verb use must be considered when translating causative verbs from Turkish into English and vice versa.

Practice and observation are necessary to ensure correct understanding and use of this verb form:

Examples of Different Verb Use in English

• In the following a different verb is used in English:
  
• Active Verb:
  anlamak to understand
• Cevabı anladım.
  I understood the answer.
  
• Causative Verb:
  anlatmak to explain
  [Lit: to cause to understand]
• Cevabı anlattım.
  I explained the answer.

In English the causative verb is often a different verb altogether from the active verb

Turkish uses the causative mood form of the active Form.

Active	Causative
to die	to kill / to murder [LIT: cause to die]
to see	to show [LIT: cause to see]
to halt	to stop [LIT: cause to halt]

Causing a Third Party to Act In Turkish

This is a doubled causative verb formed by adding -t or sometimes -tir to the regular causative verb.

• I made him paint the car.
• I got him to paint the car.
• I had him paint the car

All the above are translated:
Arabayı ona boyattırdım.
[ boya-t-tır-dım]

In this case we are causing a third party to act as an agent.

In these type of sentences the agent has the -a or -e [Motion Towards - indirect object] case endings:
[ie. I caused FOR him to paint the car.]

The verb is basically a doubled causative form. boya-t-tir-mak.

Other doubled causatives are formed similarly.

The Turkish Double Causative

The Doubled Causative is used when you get someone else to do the job.
[You cause them to have the job done.]

• I got my car repaired at the garage.
  Arabamı garajda tamir ettirdim.
  [uses a single causative.]
• I got the garage to repair my car.
  Arabamı garaja tamir ettirttim.
  [uses a double causative].

• anlattırmak
  [anla-t-tır-mak]
  to have something explained
• tamir ettirtmek
  [et-tir-t-mek ]
  to have something repaired
• yaptırtılmak
  [yap-tır-t-ıl-mak]
  to have something done

If two letters -tt- occur together, they are both pronounced individually.

These forms crop up quite regularly, especially in newspaper reports about agencies, governments etc. having something carried out by a third party.