Marking the Causee: 을/를 vs 에게 vs 이/가

When you say "Mom made the child sleep," English has one fixed way to mark the child: it is the object of made. Korean gives you a choice of particle on the causee — the person who is made to act — and that choice is not free decoration. It encodes how much control the causer has, whether the causee already has an object of their own, and which of the two causative constructions you are using. Getting the causee's particle right is the difference between "I made my brother clean" and "I let my brother clean," and between a grammatical sentence and one with two 를 crammed into a single clause. This page is about that one decision: which particle goes on the causee.

First split: which causative are you using?

Korean has two causatives, and they mark the causee differently.

• The fused (morphological) causative — a suffix 이/히/리/기/우 baked into the verb: 자다 → 재우다, 먹다 → 먹이다, 입다 → 입히다. See causative overview.
• The periphrastic causative V-게 하다 — a productive frame attached to any verb: 자게 하다, 먹게 하다. See V-게 하다.

The fused causative is rigid about the causee's particle; V-게 하다 is flexible and turns the particle into a nuance lever. Learn the rigid one first.

The fused causative: causee in 을/를 — unless the base verb already has an object

When the verb you causativized was intransitive (자다 sleep, 울다 cry, 서다 stand), the causee has no object to compete with, so it slides straight into the direct-object slot and takes 을/를.

But when the base verb was transitive — it already carries its own object — that object needs 을/를, and Korean does not allow two 을/를 in one clause. So the causee gets bumped to the dative 에게/한테, and the original object keeps 을/를.

The logic is watertight: one 을/를 per clause. With an intransitive base there is no competition, so the causee takes it (아이를 재우다). With a transitive base the object claims 을/를 first, so the causee retreats to 에게 (아이에게 밥을 먹이다).

V-게 하다: the particle becomes a nuance lever

Now the flexible case. With V-게 하다, the causee can appear in 이/가, 을/를, or 에게/한테, and each shades the meaning along a control-to-permission cline. Watch the same sentence change flavour as only the particle changes:

Read the cline like this: 을/를 grips hardest (you made them, coercion), 에게 sits in the middle (you directed or instructed them), and 이/가 loosens the grip (you allowed it; the causee is doing the acting on their own initiative). English cannot do this with a particle — it has to swap the whole verb (make vs have vs let). Korean lets you dial the same distinction by moving one syllable.

When the embedded verb has its own object, the causee again favours 에게/한테 (so the object can keep 을/를), exactly as in the fused causative:

The give/receive frame does the same thing

Verbs of showing and giving lexicalize this dative-causee pattern. 보여 주다 ("show" = 보이다 make-see + 주다) puts the person shown in 에게 and the thing shown in 을/를 — the same three-role layout as a ditransitive causative.

English fixes the causee; Korean shades it

Here is the reframing to carry away. English decides the make/let/have distinction at the verb and then fixes the causee as a plain object: "I made him go," "I let him go," "I had him go" — him never changes. Korean often keeps the verb the same (게 하다) and shades the meaning by re-marking the causee: 그를 가게 했다 leans on coercion, 그가 가게 했다 releases into permission. When you are translating an English causative into Korean, do not just find a word for make or let — decide how tightly the causer is gripping and pick the causee particle to match.

Intransitive base: both causatives agree

When the caused verb is intransitive, the fused and periphrastic causatives converge — both can put the causee in 을/를 — but they differ in directness (hands-on vs arranged). Compare:

Both mark the causee 아이를, because 울다 has no object to fight over. The particle is identical; only the degree of hands-on causation differs — the directness contrast lives on the V-게 하다 page.

Common Mistakes

1. Leaving the causee in 이/가 after a fused causative. The fused causative parks the causee in 을/를 (intransitive base).

2. Two 을/를 in one clause. When the base verb keeps its object, the causee must move to 에게/한테.

3. Dropping the causee's particle in a ditransitive causative. 에게 is doing case work; you can't just juxtapose 학생들 and 책을.

4. Using 을/를 when you mean "let." With V-게 하다, 를 reads as coercion; for permission, use 이/가.

5. Marking the causee with 를 on a transitive base under 게 하다. If the embedded object already claims 를, push the causee to 에게.

Key Takeaways

• Fused causative: intransitive base → causee in 을/를 (아이를 재우다); transitive base → causee in 에게/한테, object keeps 을/를 (아이에게 밥을 먹이다). Driven by the one-을/를-per-clause rule.
• V-게 하다: the causee particle is a nuance lever — 을/를 coercion, 에게 instruction, 이/가 permission.
• When the embedded verb has its own object, both causatives push the causee toward 에게 to avoid a 를 collision.
• English fixes the causee as an object and chooses make/let/have at the verb; Korean re-marks the causee to shade the same distinction.