Korean has a huge class of verbs built from a Sino-Korean noun plus 하다 — 공부하다 ("study"), 이해하다 ("understand"), 정지하다 ("stop"). None of them has a fused suffix causative: there is no ×공부이다, no ×이해히다. Their causative is made a different way — by swapping 하다 for 시키다. Where 공부 + 하다 = "study," 공부 + 시키다 = "make (someone) study." This single move covers hundreds of verbs, which is why 시키다 is one of the most useful causative tools in the language. And because 시키다 also lives on as a standalone verb ("order, make do"), learning it pays off twice.
시키다 as a standalone verb
On its own, 시키다 means "to make someone do something, to order, to assign." Its object is the task, and the person made to do it is marked with 에게/한테:
사장님이 신입에게 온갖 일을 시켜요.
sajangnimi sinibege ongat ireul sikyeoyo
The boss makes the new hire do all kinds of tasks.
엄마가 동생한테 심부름을 시켰어요.
eommaga dongsaenghante simbureumeul sikyeosseoyo
Mom sent my little brother on an errand.
There is one everyday sense that surprises learners: in a restaurant, 시키다 means "to order (food)." You are, in effect, making the kitchen produce your dish. This is by far the most common word for ordering, more casual and frequent than 주문하다.
우리 짜장면이랑 탕수육 시킬까요?
uri jjajangmyeon-irang tangsuyuk sikilkkayo
Shall we order jjajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork?
시키다 as the causative of Sino-하다 verbs
The main event: attach 시키다 to a Sino-Korean action noun to form the causative of its 하다-verb.
| Plain verb (하다) | Causative (시키다) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 공부하다 (study) | 공부시키다 | make (someone) study |
| 이해하다 (understand) | 이해시키다 | make (someone) understand |
| 진정하다 (calm down) | 진정시키다 | calm (someone) down |
| 정지하다 (stop) | 정지시키다 | halt (something) |
| 입원하다 (be hospitalized) | 입원시키다 | admit (someone) to hospital |
| 교육하다 (educate) | 교육시키다 | have (someone) educated |
| 향상하다 (improve) | 향상시키다 | improve (something) |
Conjugation is just that of 시키다 (a regular ㅣ-final vowel stem): present 시켜요 (sikyeoyo), past 시켰어요 (sikyeosseoyo), intent 시키려고 (sikiryeogo). The causer is the subject; the causee (the person made to act) is marked with 을/를 or 에게/한테.
부모님이 저를 억지로 공부시켜요.
bumonimi jeoreul eokjiro gongbusikyeoyo
My parents force me to study.
우는 아이를 겨우 진정시켰어요.
uneun aireul gyeou jinjeongsikyeosseoyo
I barely managed to calm the crying child down.
할머니를 병원에 입원시켰어요.
halmeonireul byeong-wone ibwonsikyeosseoyo
We admitted Grandma to the hospital.
The 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 triplet
The cleanest way to file 시키다 in memory is as one corner of a three-way set that every Sino-noun action word can form. 하다 does the action, 되다 undergoes it (passive/inchoative), and 시키다 causes it:
| Noun | 하다 (do / active) | 되다 (become / passive) | 시키다 (make do / causative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 교육 (education) | 교육하다 (educate) | 교육되다 (be educated) | 교육시키다 (have educated) |
| 정지 (stopping) | 정지하다 (stop, intr.) | 정지되다 (be stopped) | 정지시키다 (halt sth.) |
| 오염 (pollution) | 오염하다 (rare) | 오염되다 (be polluted) | 오염시키다 (pollute) |
경찰이 차를 갓길에 정지시켰어요.
gyeongchari chareul gatgire jeongjisikyeosseoyo
The police stopped the car on the shoulder. (시키다 — a causer acts on the car)
공장 폐수가 강을 오염시켰어요.
gongjang pyesuga gang-eul oyeomsikyeosseoyo
The factory's wastewater polluted the river.
Choosing among the three is really a choice about who does what: an outside causer (시키다), the thing itself undergoing a change (되다), or a plain agent doing the action (하다). The full contrast lives on the 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 triplet and passive 되다 pages.
The 시키다 trap even natives fall into
Here is where you can out-grammar a lot of native speakers. 시키다 is only correct when there is a genuine causee — a second person or thing made to perform the action. When the subject simply performs the action themselves, or on someone, the plain 하다 verb is what you want, and adding 시키다 is a redundant over-causativization that prescriptivists and the 국립국어원 flag.
The famous case is 소개하다 ("introduce"). If you want a friend to be introduced to you, you are not making anyone else do the introducing — so it is 소개하다, not 소개시키다:
친구 좀 소개해 줘.
chingu jom sogaehae jwo
Introduce me to a friend, would you? (소개하다 — no separate causee)
Colloquial speech is full of 소개시켜 줘, and you will hear it constantly, but it is the textbook example of misused 시키다: there is no third party being made to introduce anyone. The same logic catches 결혼시키다 vs 결혼하다, 화해시키다 vs 화해하다 (correct only if you are genuinely making two other people reconcile). The test is simple — is there really someone else being made to do the action? If not, use 하다.
Common Mistakes
1. Redundant 시키다 where there is no causee. "Introduce me to someone" has no third party to command.
❌ 남자친구 좀 소개시켜 줘.
namjachingu jom sogaesikyeo jwo
Common in speech, but over-causativized — there's no one being made to introduce.
✅ 남자친구 좀 소개해 줘.
namjachingu jom sogaehae jwo
Set me up with a boyfriend, would you?
2. Attaching 시키다 to a native verb stem. It goes on Sino-nouns, not on 먹-, 자-, 놀-.
❌ 아이에게 밥을 먹시켰어요.
Wrong — 먹- is a native stem; 'feed' is 먹이다, or 먹게 하다.
✅ 아이에게 밥을 먹였어요.
aiege babeul meogyeosseoyo
I fed the child.
3. Using 시키다 when you did the action yourself. 시키다 always sends the action to someone else.
❌ 제가 방을 청소시켰어요.
jega bang-eul cheongsosikyeosseoyo
This says 'I made someone clean the room' — not 'I cleaned it myself.'
✅ 제가 방을 청소했어요.
jega bang-eul cheongsohaesseoyo
I cleaned the room (myself).
4. Confusing 되다 and 시키다. A thing that undergoes the change takes 되다; a causer that produces it takes 시키다.
❌ 신호등 때문에 차가 정지시켰어요.
Wrong — the car doesn't make anything stop; it is stopped: 정지됐어요.
✅ 신호등 때문에 차가 정지됐어요.
sinhodeung ttaemune chaga jeongjidwaesseoyo
The car stopped because of the traffic light.
Key Takeaways
- 시키다 is both a standalone verb ("make do, order," and in restaurants "order food") and the causative of Sino-하다 verbs (공부하다 → 공부시키다).
- It attaches to Sino-Korean nouns, never to native verb stems (×먹시키다) — those use a suffix (먹이다) or 게 하다.
- File it as the third corner of the 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 triplet: do / undergo / cause.
- Use 시키다 only when there is a real causee; with 소개하다, 결혼하다 and friends, adding 시키다 is the classic over-causativization error.
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- The 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 TripletTOPIK 3 — One Sino-Korean action noun spawns three verbs by swapping the light verb: N하다 (active 'do X'), N되다 (passive/inchoative 'become / be X-ed'), N시키다 (causative 'make someone do X') — a clean paradigm covering a huge slice of formal Korean.
- The 되다 Passive: N이/가 되다, N하다 → N되다TOPIK 2 — 되다 is the light-verb passive that partners Sino-Korean action nouns and the huge N하다 verb class: swap 하다 → 되다 to get 'be/get X-ed' — 사용하다 → 사용되다 'be used', 시작하다 → 시작되다 'begin'. It's the passive escape hatch for the thousands of 하다-verbs that have no fused suffix passive.
- Which Verbs Take Which Suffix (and Why It Is Unpredictable)TOPIK 4 — The morphological causative is a closed, memorized set, not a productive rule: the stem-final consonant only hints at which of 이/히/리/기/우/구/추 a verb takes, many verbs have no suffix causative at all, and the safe default for any verb is the productive V-게 하다.
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