Korean Causatives: An Overview

A causative is how a language says "I made / let / had someone do something," or "I made something become a certain way." English does it with a helper verb plus a bare verb — make him eat, let her go, get it fixed. Korean has two completely different strategies, and knowing which one you're allowed to use is half the battle. There's a morphological causative — a suffix that fuses into the verb — and a periphrastic causative — a separate auxiliary that spells the causation out. This page maps the whole territory so the detailed suffix pages that follow have a home.

Strategy 1: the fused suffix (이/히/리/기/우/구/추)

For a fixed, memorized set of verbs, Korean inserts a causative suffix between the stem and the ending. The verb literally changes shape. 먹다 "eat" becomes 먹이다 "feed"; 자다 "sleep" becomes 재우다 "put to sleep." One word now carries both the action and the causing.

Watch the pattern build from a plain sentence to its causative:

These fused causatives are often idiomatic and hands-on: 먹이다 isn't just "cause to eat," it's the specific act of feeding; 재우다 is tucking in / putting down a baby. There is no reliable rule for which of the seven suffixes a given verb takes — 먹다 takes 이, 입다 takes 히, 울다 takes 리 — so you memorize each one. Each suffix gets its own page (start with the 이 causative), and the full sorting logic is on choosing the causative suffix.

Strategy 2: the periphrastic causative (V-게 하다)

The second strategy is fully productive — it works on any verb, no memorization. Take the verb's -게 form and add 하다: V-게 하다 = "make/let (someone) V." This is the causative you fall back on whenever no fused suffix exists, and it's the only option for the vast majority of verbs.

That last one is the key demonstration: 가다 has no fused causative — ×가이다 is not a word — so "make go" must be 가게 하다. The full behavior of this auxiliary, including the "let" vs "make" reading and how to mark the causee, is on -게 하다.

Strategy 2b: N + 시키다 for Sino-Korean nouns

There's a specialized branch of the periphrastic causative for 하다-nouns. Where 공부 + 하다 = "study," 공부 + 시키다 = "make (someone) study." 시키다 ("to make do / to order") swaps in for 하다 to causativize any Sino-Korean action noun: 청소시키다 (make clean), 준비시키다 (make prepare), 운동시키다 (make exercise).

시키다 only attaches to nouns, never to verb stems — that's the line that keeps 공부시키다 legal but ×먹시키다 illegal. Its full range, including how it lines up against 하다 and 되다, is on N시키다.

They are not interchangeable

Where both a fused form and 게 하다 exist, they usually differ in nuance. The morphological causative leans toward direct, hands-on causation — you physically did it to them. 게 하다 leans toward indirect causation — you caused, ordered, or allowed it, without necessarily doing it yourself. Compare:

Same event, different degree of hands-on involvement. The direct/indirect distinction, and how it maps onto English make / let / have / get, is the subject of causatives vs English make/let/have. What every causative shares — and what makes the whole family hang together — is that they change the verb's valency, adding a causer and reshuffling the particles; that mechanics page is what valency change means.

Common Mistakes

1. Inventing a suffix causative for a verb that lacks one. The suffix set is closed; for most verbs you need 게 하다.

2. Confusing the causative with the plain verb. 먹이다 (feed) and 먹다 (eat) are different verbs; use the causee's own act by mistake and you say something startling.

3. Attaching 시키다 to a verb stem. 시키다 causativizes nouns, not verbs.

4. Assuming 게 하다 and the suffix mean exactly the same. They differ in directness — 재우다 is hands-on, 자게 하다 is "let/have sleep."

Key Takeaways

• Korean causatives come in two families: morphological (fused suffix 이/히/리/기/우/구/추) and periphrastic (productive V-게 하다, plus N시키다 for Sino-nouns).
• The suffix causatives are a closed, memorized set — often idiomatic and hands-on (먹이다, 재우다); you can't invent new ones (×가이다).
• 게 하다 is fully productive and the default when no suffix exists ("make go" = 가게 하다), leaning toward indirect "cause/let."
• The two are not freely interchangeable: suffix = direct/hands-on, 게 하다 = indirect/permissive.