A causative sentence reports that one person makes, has, orders, or lets another person do something: "I made him cry," "She had the car fixed," "Let me see." English uses three different verbs — make, have, let — plus a bare or to-infinitive, and the choice is mostly idiomatic. Brazilian Portuguese organizes the same territory around three verbs of its own: fazer (to make/cause), mandar (to have/order), and deixar (to let/allow). What makes Portuguese richer — and trickier — is that each of these can take a bare infinitive, a personal infinitive, or a que-clause with the subjunctive, and the three options carry different shades of meaning and formality.
This page treats causatives as a clause-structure problem: how the causer, the causee, and the caused action fit together. For the conjugation details of fazer and mandar themselves, see the linked verb pages.
The three causative verbs
| Verb | Core meaning | English match |
|---|---|---|
| fazer | cause, bring about (often involuntarily) | make |
| mandar | order, have done (authority) | have / order |
| deixar | let, allow, permit | let / allow |
Essa música sempre me faz chorar.
That song always makes me cry.
Mandei consertar o carro na oficina do Zé.
I had the car fixed at Zé's garage.
Deixa eu ver a foto que você tirou.
Let me see the photo you took.
Notice already that the causee can be a person (me faz chorar) or left unmentioned because what matters is the result (mandei consertar o carro — I don't say who did the repair). Fazer leans toward causation that the causer didn't necessarily intend ("the song makes me cry"), while mandar implies authority ("I had it done / I ordered it done").
Option 1: bare infinitive
The most common everyday pattern is causative verb + causee + bare infinitive. The causee sits between the two verbs.
O professor fez os alunos repetirem o exercício.
The teacher made the students redo the exercise.
Mandei ele entrar e esperar na sala.
I had him come in and wait in the room.
Não deixa as crianças brincarem perto da piscina.
Don't let the children play near the pool.
In casual Brazilian speech the causee is regularly an oblique/subject-style pronoun (ele, ela, eles) rather than a clitic: mandei ele entrar, deixa elas falarem. This is fully natural in conversation (informal). In more careful or written register you may see the clitic instead: mandei-o entrar (formal), but that sounds stiff to most Brazilians and belongs to formal/literary registers.
Option 2: personal infinitive
When the causee is plural (or otherwise needs to be made explicit), the infinitive can take a personal ending: repetirem, entrarem, brincarem. This is the personal infinitive, and it appears naturally with causatives whenever the lower verb has its own visible subject:
O guarda fez os manifestantes recuarem.
The guard made the protesters back away.
Deixei os meninos saírem mais cedo da aula.
I let the boys leave class a bit early.
Both O professor fez os alunos repetir (bare) and ...repetirem (personal) are heard. The personal infinitive makes the agreement explicit and is slightly more careful; the bare infinitive is looser and very common in speech. Neither is wrong. See the personal-infinitive-with-causative page for the finer distribution.
Option 3: fazer com que + subjunctive (the emphatic causative)
Portuguese has a heavier, more emphatic causative built with fazer com que + present/imperfect subjunctive. It foregrounds the bringing about of a result and is common in writing and in deliberate speech.
A notícia fez com que todos ficassem em silêncio.
The news made everyone fall silent.
O calor faz com que as plantas murchem mais rápido.
The heat makes the plants wilt faster.
Compare the lighter fez todos ficarem em silêncio (infinitive) with fez com que todos ficassem em silêncio (subjunctive). They mean the same thing, but fazer com que sounds more formal and slightly more emphatic — it spells out the causal chain. English has no direct equivalent; you simply choose "made everyone fall silent" in both cases.
Mandar and deixar with que-clauses
Mandar and deixar can also introduce a full clause, but with a plain que + subjunctive (not com que), expressing an order or a permission:
Mandei que parassem com o barulho imediatamente.
I ordered them to stop the noise immediately.
Deixa que eu cuido disso, pode ir descansar.
Let me handle this, go and rest.
Mandar que + subjunctive (formal) sounds authoritative and somewhat formal; in everyday speech mandar ele parar (infinitive) is more common. Deixa que eu... is a fixed, very common conversational formula meaning "let me take care of it" (informal).
Clitic placement in causatives
When the causee is an object clitic, Brazilian Portuguese strongly prefers proclisis (clitic before the verb), especially in speech, even at the start of a sentence — a hallmark difference from European Portuguese:
Me faz rir toda vez que conta essa história.
You make me laugh every time you tell that story.
Ela me deixou escolher o restaurante.
She let me choose the restaurant.
In me faz rir, the clitic me is the causee (the one laughing) and attaches before faz. Starting a sentence with Me faz... is normal spoken Brazilian (informal); formal writing would prefer Faz-me rir. With deixar, the famous fixed phrases deixa eu and me deixa dominate everyday speech:
Me deixa terminar de falar, por favor.
Let me finish talking, please.
Deixa eu pensar um pouco antes de responder.
Let me think a bit before I answer.
Notice that deixa eu ver uses eu (a subject pronoun) where strict grammar would want the object me (deixa-me ver). The deixa eu + infinitive pattern is one of the most characteristic features of colloquial Brazilian Portuguese (informal/regional: general Brazil) — so entrenched that correcting it to deixa-me ver would sound unnatural in conversation.
Choosing among the three constructions
| Goal | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday causation | fazer/mandar/deixar + infinitive | Me faz rir |
| Emphatic / written cause | fazer com que + subjunctive | Fez com que todos ficassem em silêncio |
| Formal order | mandar que + subjunctive | Mandei que saíssem |
| "Let me" (speech) | deixa eu / me deixa + infinitive | Deixa eu ver |
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu fiz ele a chorar.
Incorrect — no preposition before the infinitive with 'fazer'.
✅ Eu fiz ele chorar.
I made him cry.
❌ Isso faz com que eu fico feliz.
Incorrect — 'fazer com que' requires the subjunctive, not the indicative.
✅ Isso faz com que eu fique feliz.
That makes me happy.
❌ Deixa eu vejo a foto.
Incorrect — 'deixa eu' is followed by the infinitive, not a conjugated verb.
✅ Deixa eu ver a foto.
Let me see the photo.
❌ Faz me rir.
Incorrect spacing/order for spoken Brazilian — the clitic goes before, attached in writing as 'faz-me' or proclitic 'me faz'.
✅ Me faz rir.
It makes me laugh.
❌ Mandei ele a entrar.
Incorrect — never insert 'a' before the infinitive; use 'mandei ele entrar' (infinitive) or 'mandei que ele entrasse' (subjunctive).
✅ Mandei ele entrar.
I told him to come in.
Key Takeaways
- fazer = make/cause, mandar = have/order, deixar = let/allow; each takes an infinitive in everyday use.
- fazer com que + subjunctive is the emphatic, more formal causative; mandar que / deixa que + subjunctive express formal orders and permissions.
- Brazilian speech prefers fazer/mandar/deixar + ele/ela + infinitive and proclitic clitics (me faz rir); clitic-attached forms (fi-lo, deixei-a) are formal/written.
- deixa eu and me deixa
- infinitive are ubiquitous spoken formulas for "let me."
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Causative Constructions (Fazer / Mandar)B2 — How Brazilian Portuguese expresses making, having, ordering, and letting someone do something — with fazer, mandar, and deixar plus an infinitive, and the bare-vs-personal infinitive choice that follows them.
- Personal Infinitive with Causative Verbs (mandar, deixar, fazer)B2 — Using the personal infinitive after causative verbs to say you had, let, or made someone do something — and the colloquial bare-infinitive alternative.
- Perception Verb ComplementsB2 — How ver, ouvir, sentir, observar, and notar take their complements in Brazilian Portuguese — gerund for an ongoing scene, personal infinitive for a bounded event, bare infinitive in speech, and 'que' for inferred facts.
- Subjunctive after Verbs of Desire and WillA2 — Why querer que, pedir que, and other verbs of wanting force the subjunctive — and the English-speaker error to avoid.
- Infinitive ClausesB1 — Using impersonal and personal infinitive clauses — antes de sair, ao chegar, é melhor irmos — as an economical alternative to finite que-clauses.