Esperanto forms causatives with the independent verb igi and the productive suffix -ig-. Both mean that a causer brings about an action or state, and both create an object relation: the participant made to act or change is normally marked with accusative -n. Thus La novaĵo malĝojigis ŝin means “The news made her sad.”
The challenging cases arise when the caused action already has an object. Esperanto then distributes the participants according to valency: one may be the causative object, another may remain the object of an infinitive, or one may be introduced with al or pri. English word order alone does not determine the choice. All unlabelled examples below are neutral modern Esperanto.
For the broader derivational system, see valency-changing derivation. Here the focus is specifically on the resulting accusative patterns.
Igi: the affected participant is the object
With independent igi, the subject causes something, the object undergoes the effect, and an infinitive or predicative complement states the result:
La laŭta alarmo igis ĉiujn eliri el la konstruaĵo.
The loud alarm made everyone leave the building.
Tiu mesaĝo igis min rideti dum la tuta mateno.
That message made me smile all morning.
Ĉiujn and min are objects of igis. They are also the understood doers of eliri and rideti. A full noun phrase marks accusative on every eligible agreeing word:
La trejnisto igis la lacajn ludantojn kuri ankoraŭ unu kilometron.
The coach made the tired players run one more kilometer.
Here la lacajn ludantojn is the causative object. Unu kilometron is an extent associated with kuri, not a second object of igis. Identical -n endings can represent different roles; the verbs and meanings identify them.
An infinitive can keep its own object
When the caused action is transitive, the sentence may contain two accusative phrases, each licensed by a different verb:
La estro igis la asistantojn kontroli la longajn listojn.
The manager made the assistants check the long lists.
La asistantojn belongs to igis and names the people caused to act. La longajn listojn belongs to kontroli and names what they check. Keeping each phrase next to its verb makes the structure transparent.
— Kial vi revenis? — La hotelo igis nin pagi la fakturon denove.
— Why did you come back? — The hotel made us pay the bill again.
The same principle applies to pronouns and correlatives:
Kio igis ŝin ŝanĝi tiun gravan decidon?
What made her change that important decision?
Ŝin is object of igis; tiun gravan decidon is object of ŝanĝi. The interrogative kio is the subject, so it has no -n. Compare Kion ŝi ŝanĝis?, where kion is itself the object.
Predicative results do not copy the object’s -n
Modern standard usage allows igi with an adjective or noun naming the resulting state. That result is a predicative complement, not another object, so it normally has no -n:
La bona novaĵo igis ŝin feliĉa.
The good news made her happy.
La teamo igis Karlon prezidanto de la komitato.
The team made Karlo chair of the committee.
This contrasts with an adjective inside the object phrase:
La ŝerco igis la feliĉan infanon ridi.
The joke made the happy child laugh.
In la feliĉan infanon, “happy” describes the child before or independently of the caused laughter, so it agrees with the object. In igis ŝin feliĉa, “happy” is the state produced by the causation and stays unmarked. This distinction is productive, not an arbitrary exception.
Historically, Zamenhof used igi chiefly with infinitives. PMEG records adjective and noun results as established modern usage. They are neutral today, though a ke-clause can be clearer when the complement is long: La novaĵo kaŭzis, ke ŝi fariĝis feliĉa.
The suffix -ig- makes an object-taking verb
All verbs formed with -ig- are object-taking. With an adjective or an intransitive verb as the base, the object is the participant that acquires the state or performs the caused action:
La vento sekigis la malsekajn tukojn en malpli ol horo.
The wind dried the wet towels in less than an hour.
Bonvolu sidigi la infanon apud vi.
Please seat the child next to you.
Sekaj describes a state; sekigi la tukojn causes the towels to become dry. Sidi is intransitive; sidigi la infanon causes the child to sit. In both, the affected participant takes -n.
La longa kunveno ne lacigis min, sed la vojaĝo hejmen ja lacigis.
The long meeting did not tire me, but the journey home certainly did.
The second occurrence omits the recoverable object min. This is ordinary object ellipsis; it does not make lacigi lexically intransitive.
When the base verb is already transitive
If -ig- is added to a verb that already has an object, two participants compete for the one direct-object relation of the derived verb. Standard Esperanto offers alternative frames. With manĝigi, for example, the object may be the eater:
Mi manĝigis la infanon antaŭ ol ni foriris.
I fed the child before we left.
Or the food can remain the direct object, while the eater is an al-complement:
Mi manĝigis varman supon al la infano.
I fed warm soup to the child.
Do not combine both as two differently related accusatives. The same choice appears with verbs such as sciigi and memorigi:
Bonvolu sciigi nin pri ĉiu ŝanĝo.
Please inform us about every change.
Bonvolu sciigi ĉiun ŝanĝon al la tuta teamo.
Please announce every change to the whole team.
The first selects the informed people as object and marks the information with pri. The second selects the information as object and marks the recipients with al. PMEG explicitly treats these as alternative object choices; not as permission for sciigi nin ĉiun ŝanĝon.
Prepositions, direction, and measure keep their own roles
An ordinary preposition already marks its complement, so the noun after it does not receive object -n:
La kuracisto memorigis min pri la sekva vizito.
The doctor reminded me about the next appointment.
Here min is the object; pri la sekva vizito is a topic complement. Directional and measure -n can occur inside the caused event without becoming objects of igi:
La fumo igis nin kuri eksteren preskaŭ cent metrojn.
The smoke made us run outside for almost one hundred meters.
Nin is the causative object, eksteren marks direction, and cent metrojn marks extent. The common ending belongs to a coherent role-marking system, but the three phrases do not share one syntactic function.
Norm, variation, and practical style
The Fundamento establishes causative -ig- and ordinary accusative agreement; Fundamenta and early corpus examples already show affected participants as objects. PMEG systematizes both independent igi and derived -ig- verbs, including the alternative frames of causatives built from transitive verbs.
For active use, keep the causative object close to igi/-ig- and mark additional participants with the frame required by the caused verb. In dense sentences with two accusatives, a ke-clause may improve international clarity. The productive system is standard across registers; unusually stacked causatives are grammatical but can sound technical or (literary).
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving the affected participant unmarked.
❌ La bruo igis la bebo plori.
Incorrect — the baby is the object of igis.
✅ La bruo igis la bebon plori.
The noise made the baby cry.
2. Marking only the noun in a full object phrase.
❌ La instruisto sidigis la junaj lernantojn.
Incorrect — the adjective must share the object's accusative marking.
✅ La instruisto sidigis la junajn lernantojn.
The teacher seated the young students.
3. Adding -n to a resulting predicate.
❌ La novaĵo igis ŝin feliĉan.
Incorrect for the caused state reading — feliĉa is a predicative result, not part of the object phrase.
✅ La novaĵo igis ŝin feliĉa.
The news made her happy.
4. Copying an English double-object causative.
❌ Mi sciigis lin la ŝanĝon.
Incorrect — two different roles cannot both be direct objects of sciigi.
✅ Mi sciigis lin pri la ŝanĝo.
I informed him about the change.
5. Adding object -n after an ordinary preposition.
❌ Tio memorigis min pri mian unuan laboron.
Incorrect — pri already marks the complement.
✅ Tio memorigis min pri mia unua laboro.
That reminded me of my first job.
Key Takeaways
- Igi and every -ig- verb create an object relation for the affected participant.
- A transitive infinitive after igi can keep a separate object of its own.
- Resulting adjectives and nouns after igi are predicative and normally do not take -n.
- Causatives built from transitive verbs may allow alternative object choices, but not two differently related direct objects at once.
- Directional and measure -n inside the caused event remain distinct from object -n.
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Start learning Esperanto →Related Topics
- Two Objects and ValencyA2 — How Esperanto distributes recipients, things transferred, and other participants between the accusative and prepositional phrases.
- Objects after InfinitivesB1 — How Esperanto infinitives retain their own objects, complements, and accusative marking inside larger verb phrases.
- Predicative Complements and the AccusativeB1 — Distinguish Esperanto predicative complements from accusative objects and attributive modifiers, especially in clauses that describe an object.
- Valency-Changing DerivationB1 — Use -ig- and -iĝ- to add a causer, remove a causer, and build precise causative and change-of-state verbs in Esperanto.
- -ig-: CausationB2 — Use -ig- to make something acquire a quality, enter a state, or perform an action, while tracking how causation changes verb valency.
- Lasi: To Leave Or LetB1 — Use lasi for leaving something behind or unchanged and for allowing an object to act, with clear contrasts to foriri and igi.