A causative adds a causer to a situation: someone makes, enables, or brings about another event or state. Arabic can encode that relation inside an attested derived verb—often Form II or Form IV—or spell it out with جعل, سبّب, أدّى إلى, دفع ... إلى, or a more specific verb such as أجبر “compel.” These options do not form a mechanical ladder of synonyms.
The most important restriction is lexical: Form II and Form IV have common causative functions, but a pattern does not guarantee a causative meaning, and an English causative does not authorize inventing an Arabic derivative. Learn each verb's principal parts, meaning, and argument frame. Then track what happens to the participants when a causer is added.
Adding a causer changes valency
When an intransitive base has one participant, a causative counterpart commonly adds a subject and turns the original participant into an object.
| Uncaused event | Causative event | Participant change |
|---|---|---|
| خَرَجَ الزَّائِرُ | أَخْرَجَ الْحَارِسُ الزَّائِرَ | visitor: nominative subject → accusative causee |
| جَلَسَ الطِّفْلُ | أَجْلَسَتِ الْمُمَرِّضَةُ الطِّفْلَ | child: subject → object |
| فَرِحَ الْفَرِيقُ | فَرَّحَ الْخَبَرُ الْفَرِيقَ | team: experiencer subject → affected object |
خرج الزائر من القاعة بعد انتهاء المقابلة.
kharaja z-zāʾiru mina l-qāʿati baʿda ntihāʾi l-muqābala.
The visitor left the hall after the interview ended. (Form I; intransitive.)
أخرج الحارس الزائر من القاعة بعد انطلاق جرس الإنذار.
ʾakhraja l-ḥārisu z-zāʾira mina l-qāʿati baʿda nṭilāqi jarasi l-ʾindhār.
The guard led the visitor out of the hall after the alarm sounded. (Form IV causative; الزائرَ is the causee.)
The Form IV verb is أَخْرَجَ / يُخْرِجُ / إِخْرَاجًا, root خ-ر-ج. Its subject الحارسُ is the causer, and original subject الزائرُ becomes direct object الزائرَ. The source phrase من القاعة keeps the spatial relation of the base event.
With a transitive base, a causative may retain two object-like participants. عَلِمَ الطالبُ القاعدةَ “the student knew the rule” corresponds lexically to Form II عَلَّمَ المدرسُ الطالبَ القاعدةَ “the teacher taught the student the rule.”
علمت المدربة الموظفين إجراءات الإخلاء قبل بدء التمرين.
ʿallamati l-mudarribatu l-muwaẓẓafīna ʾijrāʾāti l-ʾikhlāʾi qabla badʾi t-tamrīn.
The trainer taught the employees the evacuation procedures before the drill began. (Form II; causee and content are both accusative.)
Form II and Form IV are tendencies, not an algorithm
Form II فَعَّلَ often causativizes, intensifies, distributes, or derives a verb from a noun. Form IV أَفْعَلَ often causativizes or marks entry into a state, but many of its verbs are simply lexical. Some roots have both Forms with different established meanings.
علم الباحث بالنتيجة، ثم أعلم رئيس القسم بها.
ʿalima l-bāḥithu bin-natījati, thumma ʾaʿlama raʾīsa l-qismi bihā.
The researcher learned the result, then informed the department head of it. (Form I versus lexical Form IV.)
Form IV أعلم means “inform,” while Form II علّم means “teach.” Reducing both to “cause to know” erases the complement frames learners must actually produce.
نزل الباحث مجموعة البيانات من الموقع، ثم أنزل صندوق الوثائق من الرف.
nazzala l-bāḥithu majmūʿata l-bayānāti mina l-mawqiʿi, thumma ʾanzala ṣundūqa l-wathāʾiqi mina r-raff.
The researcher downloaded the dataset from the website, then took the document box down from the shelf. (Attested contemporary Form II/Form IV uses.)
Both verbs can relate to “bringing down,” but usage, affected object, and lexical convention decide which is natural. The pattern alone cannot derive the sentence.
Form II may have no live causative contrast at all: نظّم means “organize,” حدّث can mean “update” or “tell,” and سلّم can mean “hand over” or “greet.” Form IV أرسل means “send,” not simply “cause a Form-I verb رَسَلَ.”
جعل with an object predicate or caused event
جعل provides a productive syntactic causative. With an object plus adjective or noun predicate, it means “make/render X Y.” Both complements are accusative because they form an embedded predication: النظامُ مرنٌ → جعل التعديلُ النظامَ مرنًا.
جعل التعديل الجديد النظام أكثر مرونة للباحثين.
jaʿala t-taʿdīlu l-jadīdu n-niẓāma ʾakthara murūnatan lil-bāḥithīn.
The new amendment made the system more flexible for researchers. (Formal; object–predicate frame.)
النظامَ is the entity affected; أكثرَ مرونةً is the predicate made true of it. English order happens to look similar here, but Arabic case reveals that this is one compact embedded predication, not two unrelated objects.
جعل + object + imperfect can present a caused or induced activity, particularly when context makes agency clear. It often suggests bringing about a behavior or state, not necessarily physical coercion.
جعلت الأزمة الشركات تعيد النظر في سلاسل التوريد.
jaʿalati l-ʾazmatu sh-sharikāti tuʿīdu n-naẓara fī salāsili t-tawrīd.
The crisis made companies reconsider their supply chains. (Formal causal relation, not deliberate coercion.)
The companies remain the semantic agents of تعيد, while الأزمة causes the reconsideration. For deliberate compulsion, أجبر + object + على + maṣdar / أنْ-clause is more precise; for permission, use سمح لـ. English make does not distinguish these relations as clearly.
سبّب and explicit causal packaging
Form II سَبَّبَ / يُسَبِّبُ / تَسْبِيبًا takes a cause as subject and normally an effect noun as object. It is common in factual, technical, and medical prose (formal/academic).
سبب العطل تأخرا استمر أكثر من ساعتين.
sabbaba l-ʿuṭlu taʾakhkhuran istamarra ʾakthara min sāʿatayn.
The fault caused a delay that lasted more than two hours. (Formal factual causation.)
When the effect is a fuller event, modern prose often prefers تسبّب في + maṣdar or أدّى إلى + maṣdar rather than forcing an entire finite clause directly after سبّب.
تسبب انقطاع الكهرباء في توقف أجهزة التبريد مؤقتا.
tasabbaba nqiṭāʿu l-kahrabāʾi fī tawaqqufi ʾajhizati t-tabrīdi muʾaqqatan.
The power outage caused the cooling equipment to stop temporarily. (Formal/technical.)
أدى وضوح التعليمات إلى انخفاض عدد الأخطاء في الطلبات الجديدة.
ʾaddā wuḍūḥu t-taʿlīmāti ʾilā nkhifāḍi ʿadadi l-ʾakhṭāʾi fī ṭ-ṭalabāti l-jadīda.
The clarity of the instructions led to a reduction in the number of errors in new applications. (Academic/administrative.)
أدّى إلى presents a causal link without implying an intentional causer. دفع ... إلى suggests pressure or motivation; أجبر ... على entails compulsion more strongly. Selecting a causal predicate is therefore a semantic judgment, not stylistic variation alone.
Passive causatives and promoted participants
When a causative verb is passivized, the affected participant can become the passive subject. The causer is suppressed, while the caused relation remains.
أخرج الزوار من المبنى فور اكتشاف تسرب الغاز.
ʾukhrija z-zuwwāru mina l-mabnā fawra ktishāfi tasarrubi l-ghāz.
The visitors were evacuated from the building as soon as the gas leak was discovered. (Formal passive Form IV.)
Passive أُخرج is singular before overt human plural الزوارُ in neutral VSO. It does not mean that the visitors caused themselves to leave. A middle or anticausative counterpart, covered separately on the middle and anticausative strategies page, suppresses the external cause in a different grammatical way.
Common Mistakes
Inventing a derived verb from an English gloss
❌ نحتاج معنى جعلهم يفهمون، لذلك يمكن مضاعفة أي جذر وصنع فعل جديد.
Incorrect—Form II is productive historically, but modern learners must verify that the lexeme and intended sense are attested.
✅ شرح المدرب الإجراء بوضوح حتى فهمه جميع المشاركين.
sharaḥa l-mudarribu l-ʾijrāʾa biwuḍūḥin ḥattā fahimahu jamīʿu l-mushārikīn.
The trainer explained the procedure clearly until all participants understood it. (Safe lexical causation.)
Keeping the original subject nominative after causativization
❌ أخرج الحارس الزائر من القاعة، والزائر فاعل مرفوع.
Incorrect analysis—الحارسُ is the causer-subject; the original mover becomes accusative object الزائرَ.
✅ أدخل الموظف الضيف إلى غرفة الاجتماعات.
ʾadkhala l-muwaẓẓafu ḍ-ḍayfa ʾilā ghurfati l-ijtimāʿāt.
The employee showed the guest into the meeting room. (Form IV causative.)
Treating Forms II and IV as freely interchangeable
❌ أعلم المعلم الطلاب القاعدة، والمقصود أنه دربهم عليها.
Incorrect lexical choice—أعلم normally means ‘inform’; teaching is علّم with its own two-complement frame.
✅ علم المعلم الطلاب القاعدة، ثم أعلم أولياءهم بنتائج الاختبار.
ʿallama l-muʿallimu ṭ-ṭullāba l-qāʿidata, thumma ʾaʿlama ʾawliyāʾahum binatāʾiji l-ikhtibār.
The teacher taught the students the rule, then informed their guardians of the test results.
Merging the two complements after جعل
❌ جعل القرار الإجراءات واضحة، وواضحة صفة مرفوعة للإجراءات.
Incorrect analysis—after جعل, الإجراءاتَ and واضحةً form an object–predicate pair and are both accusative.
✅ جعل الدليل المصور الإجراءات أوضح للموظفين الجدد.
jaʿala d-dalīlu l-muṣawwaru l-ʾijrāʾāti ʾawḍaḥa lil-muwaẓẓafīna l-judud.
The illustrated guide made the procedures clearer for new employees.
Using سبّب with an unintegrated finite effect clause
❌ سبب انقطاع الكهرباء أن توقفت الأجهزة ساعتين.
Awkward formal packaging—use تسبب في or أدّى إلى with a maṣdar, or make the causal clauses explicit.
✅ أدى انقطاع الكهرباء إلى توقف الأجهزة ساعتين كاملتين.
ʾaddā nqiṭāʿu l-kahrabāʾi ʾilā tawaqqufi l-ʾajhizati sāʿatayni kāmilatayn.
The power outage caused the equipment to stop for two full hours.
Key Takeaways
- Causativization adds a causer and can demote the original subject to an object; a transitive base may therefore yield a multi-complement frame.
- Forms II and IV have causative tendencies, but each lexeme's meaning and valency must be verified.
- جعل productively takes an object plus an accusative predicate, and can introduce a caused activity.
- سبّب، تسبّب في، أدّى إلى، دفع إلى, and أجبر على encode different causal relations and complement structures.
- Passive causatives suppress the causer while retaining the caused relation; they are not the same as middles or anticausatives.
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- Form II فعّلA2 — Recognize Form II gemination, conjugate فعّل / يفعّل / تفعيل, and learn its causative, intensive, denominative, and lexical meanings as tendencies.
- Form IV أفعلA2 — Recognize Form IV through its permanent hamzat al-qaṭʿ and learn when its lexical verbs express causation, entry into a state, or neither.
- Derived Forms and ValencyB2 — Track how Arabic derived verbs add, suppress, or reorganize participants—and why each verb's objects and prepositions remain lexical facts.
- لولا and Counterfactual PreventionC1 — Build counterfactual prevention with لولا, a nominal protasis, an understood existential predicate, and a lām-marked result.
- Middle, Reflexive, and Anticausative StrategiesC1 — Choose among lexical middle verbs, anticausative Forms V, VII, and VIII, the internal passive, and explicit reflexives by tracking each participant.