करना, कराना, and करवाना place the subject at increasing distances from an action. With करना, the subject does it; with कराना, the subject causes, commissions, or supervises it; with करवाना, the subject characteristically gets it done through another person or arrangement. The last two overlap in real usage, so “direct” versus “indirect” is a strong tendency, not a rigid test of who physically touched what.
This three-way family applies the broader contrast between direct causatives in -आ- and indirect causatives in -वा- to Hindi’s most useful light verb.
The core contrast
| Infinitive | Stem | Causing structure | Typical English rendering |
|---|---|---|---|
| करना | कर- | subject performs the action | do |
| कराना | करा- | subject causes or has the action performed | make/have someone do |
| करवाना | करवा- | subject arranges or gets the action performed | get/have something done |
मैं हर महीने गाड़ी की जाँच करता हूँ।
maĩ har mahīne gāṛī kī jā̃c kartā hū̃.
I inspect the car every month. (male speaker)
मैं हर महीने गाड़ी की जाँच कराता हूँ।
maĩ har mahīne gāṛī kī jā̃c karātā hū̃.
I have the car inspected every month. (male speaker)
कंपनी हर साल बाहर की एजेंसी से पूरी जाँच करवाती है।
kampanī har sāl bāhar kī ejensī se pūrī jā̃c karvātī hai.
The company gets the full inspection done by an outside agency each year.
The first subject is the inspector. The second causes an inspection, perhaps at a garage. The third explicitly introduces an intermediary with से, making करवाना especially natural.
कराना and करवाना genuinely overlap
Speakers often use both verbs for routine services: इलाज कराना/करवाना, मरम्मत कराना/करवाना, जाँच कराना/करवाना. करवाना more clearly profiles an arrangement or delegated agent, while कराना can sound closer to commissioning or ensuring the event. Regional and individual preferences also matter. It is inaccurate to call one form ungrammatical merely because the other is more idiomatic in a particular collocation.
मुझे कल दाँतों की सफ़ाई करानी है।
mujhe kal dā̃toṃ kī safāī karānī hai.
I need to have my teeth cleaned tomorrow.
हमने पूरे घर की सफ़ाई पेशेवर टीम से करवाई।
hamne pūre ghar kī safāī peśevar ṭīm se karvāī.
We had a professional team clean the whole house.
क्या आपने पासपोर्ट का नवीकरण करा लिया?
kyā āpne pāsporṭ kā navīkaraṇ karā liyā?
Have you had your passport renewed? (respectful)
The first sentence need not name the dental worker. The second foregrounds delegation with टीम से. In the third, करा लिया adds completive लेना, presenting the commissioned task as accomplished for the subject’s benefit.
All three are normal conjugating verbs
The lexical choice sits inside the predicate; habitual, progressive, perfective, future, and modal material appears outside it.
| Layer | करना | कराना | करवाना |
|---|---|---|---|
| habitual masculine | करता है | कराता है | करवाता है |
| habitual feminine | करती है | कराती है | करवाती है |
| progressive masculine | कर रहा है | करा रहा है | करवा रहा है |
| perfective masculine | किया | कराया | करवाया |
| future first person | करूँगा/करूँगी | कराऊँगा/कराऊँगी | करवाऊँगा/करवाऊँगी |
अमन अपना काम खुद करता है।
aman apnā kām khud kartā hai.
Aman does his work himself.
रीना नए कर्मचारियों से यह अभ्यास कराती है।
rīnā nae karmacāriyoṃ se yah abhyās karātī hai.
Reena has the new employees do this exercise.
दोनों प्रबंधक मरम्मत का काम बाहर करवाते हैं।
donoṃ prabandhak marammat kā kām bāhar karvāte haiṃ.
Both managers outsource the repair work.
रीना और सीमा हर छह महीने में मशीनों की जाँच करवाती हैं।
rīnā aur sīmā har chah mahīne meṃ maśīnoṃ kī jā̃c karvātī haiṃ.
Reena and Seema have the machines inspected every six months.
Habitual agreement is with the causer: masculine singular कराता, feminine singular कराती, masculine or mixed plural कराते, and all-feminine plural कराती with plural हैं.
Perfective ने and object agreement
All three verbs are transitive in their relevant uses. In a canonical perfective clause, the causer or doer takes ने. An eligible unmarked object can control agreement; otherwise the predicate defaults to masculine singular.
नीलम ने रिपोर्ट तैयार की।
nīlam ne riporṭ taiyār kī.
Neelam prepared the report.
नीलम ने रिपोर्ट तैयार कराई।
nīlam ne riporṭ taiyār karāī.
Neelam had the report prepared.
नीलम ने सभी रिपोर्टें बाहर की टीम से तैयार करवाईं।
nīlam ne sabhī riporṭeṃ bāhar kī ṭīm se taiyār karvāīṃ.
Neelam had an outside team prepare all the reports.
Feminine रिपोर्ट controls की/कराई, and feminine plural रिपोर्टें controls करवाईं. The causer नीलम ने and intermediary टीम से are both postpositional and cannot control agreement.
Negation, questions, and modality
Negation precedes the lexical predicate in neutral order. A question can ask whether the causer personally performed the task or arranged it—an important real-world distinction.
मैंने यह अनुवाद खुद नहीं किया।
maĩne yah anuvād khud nahīṃ kiyā.
I did not do this translation myself.
क्या आपने यह अनुवाद किसी और से कराया था?
kyā āpne yah anuvād kisī aur se karāyā thā?
Had you had someone else do this translation? (respectful)
हमें दस्तावेज़ों की जाँच आज ही करवानी होगी।
hameṃ dastāvezoṃ kī jā̃c āj hī karvānī hogī.
We will have to get the documents checked today.
The final sentence contains an agreeing infinitive करवानी, future obligation होगी, and a feminine head जाँच. It is not a finite clause built by leaving करवाना unchanged.
Common Mistakes
Using करना when someone else performed the service
❌ मैंने कल अपने बाल काटे।
Wrong for ‘I got my hair cut’ — this says that I cut it myself.
✅ मैंने कल अपने बाल कटवाए।
maĩne kal apne bāl kaṭvāe.
I got my hair cut yesterday.
Treating कराना and करवाना as different tenses
❌ करवाना कराना का भूतकाल है।
Incorrect — they are different causative stems, not tense forms.
✅ कराया और करवाया दोनों भूतकाल के पूर्ण पक्ष के रूप हो सकते हैं।
karāyā aur karvāyā donoṃ bhūtkāl ke pūrṇ pakṣ ke rūp ho sakte haiṃ.
कराया and करवाया can both be perfective past forms.
Omitting ने in a canonical perfective
❌ रीना रिपोर्ट तैयार करवाई।
Incorrect in the canonical perfective transitive pattern — the causer needs ने.
✅ रीना ने रिपोर्ट तैयार करवाई।
rīnā ne riporṭ taiyār karvāī.
Reena had the report prepared.
Agreeing with the से-marked intermediary
❌ सीमा ने काम महिला कर्मचारियों से करवाई।
Incorrect — काम is masculine singular; the feminine intermediary does not control agreement.
✅ सीमा ने काम महिला कर्मचारियों से करवाया।
sīmā ne kām mahilā karmacāriyoṃ se karvāyā.
Seema had the female employees do the work.
Using an infinitive as the finite predicate
❌ कंपनी हर साल जाँच करवाना।
Incorrect as a finite routine statement.
✅ कंपनी हर साल जाँच करवाती है।
kampanī har sāl jā̃c karvātī hai.
The company arranges an inspection every year.
Key Takeaways
Use करना for performing, कराना for causing or commissioning, and करवाना when delegation or an intermediary is especially salient. The last two overlap in service collocations. Once the lexical stem is chosen, ordinary Hindi agreement, ने, aspect, tense, mood, and auxiliary rules build the rest of the predicate.
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- Indirect causatives in -vā-B2 — Use Hindi -vā- causatives to present an arranged, mediated, or delegated event, with the causative stem carrying ordinary TAM and agreement.
- Causative argument markingC1 — Assign ने, को, and से to the causer, affected participant, intermediary, and patient in Hindi causative clauses.
- Intransitive-transitive-causative setsB2 — Learn Hindi verb families that contrast a spontaneous event, a caused transitive event, and an indirectly arranged causative event.
- Causatives with ने and कोC1 — Track the causer, caused participant, theme, and agreement controller in Hindi causatives using ने, को, and से.
- Causative passivesC1 — Build passives from causative stems while keeping the causer, intermediary, affected participant, agreement, and TAM layers distinct.