Causative Constructions (Fazer / Mandar)

A causative construction is one where the subject doesn't perform the action themselves but causes someone else to perform it: I make you laugh, the teacher had the students read, the boss let them leave early. English splits this work across three different verbs — make, have, and let — each with its own grammar. Brazilian Portuguese concentrates almost all of it into three verbs too: fazer (make / cause to), mandar (have / order to), and deixar (let / allow to). Understanding their semantics — and the infinitive that follows them — is the key to expressing influence over other people's actions naturally.

The headline insight for English speakers: Portuguese fazer is broader than English "make." It covers both "make someone do something" (A música me fez chorar — the music made me cry) and the "have someone do something" sense English assigns to "have" (Fiz o mecânico trocar o pneu — I had the mechanic change the tire). One verb does two jobs.

The three causative verbs

Fazer is neutral about authority — it just says you caused the result, whether by force, persuasion, or accident. Mandar carries the sense of a command or instruction (you have authority over the doer). Deixar is the opposite of preventing — you remove an obstacle and permit the action.

The structure: causative verb + subject + infinitive

The pattern is [causative verb] + [the person who does the action] + [infinitive]. The person who actually performs the embedded action is the causee. Compare with English, which inserts the causee differently for each verb:

Notice that in BR colloquial usage the causee is the subject-form pronoun ele, not the object form o — Eu fiz ele rir, not the bookish Eu o fiz rir. This is standard, natural Brazilian Portuguese (the European norm prefers the clitic). Don't be misled by prescriptive grammars that insist on fi-lo rir; no Brazilian talks that way.

Bare infinitive vs. personal infinitive after causatives

Here is where Brazilian Portuguese offers a genuine choice. When the causee is plural, you can mark the infinitive for person (the personal infinitive, adding -em for the third-person plural) or leave it as a bare infinitive. Both are correct in BR.

Both sentences are fully grammatical and both are heard from native speakers. The same flexibility applies to mandar and deixar:

So which do you choose? The difference is subtle and largely a matter of register and emphasis. The personal infinitive (rirem, saírem, brincarem) makes the causee feel more like an independent grammatical subject of its own clause — it's slightly more formal and explicit, and it's what careful writing tends to use. The bare infinitive (rir, sair, brincar) treats the whole thing as one tight event with a single verbal nucleus — it's the more colloquial, neutral choice in speech. For deeper treatment of the form itself, see the dedicated page on the personal infinitive with causatives; here the point is the causative semantics — what fazer, mandar, and deixar mean and how they differ.

Pronoun objects: universal proclisis in BR

When the causee is an unstressed pronoun (me, te, nos), Brazilian Portuguese colloquially places it before the causative verb — proclisis — even at the start of a sentence, which prescriptive European grammar forbids.

Starting a sentence with Me fez rir would be flagged as "wrong" in a formal European Portuguese exam, which demands enclisis (Fez-me rir). In Brazil, Me fez rir is simply how everyone speaks and how most informal writing reads. The formal enclitic fez-me rir is correct but sounds bookish in a Brazilian mouth. See proclisis as the BR default for the full picture.

Fazer vs. mandar in practice

These two are easy to confuse because both can translate as "have someone do something." The deciding factor is authority and intent:

• Mandar = you give an order or instruction. There is a clear directive.
• Fazer = you bring about the result, by any means — including unintentionally.

You cannot use mandar in the second sentence — news can't give orders. And fazer in the first sentence would be odd, because the boss is clearly issuing a command. Match the verb to whether there's an actual directive.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• fazer = cause/make (broadest; covers English "make" and "have"); mandar = order/have (needs a directive); deixar = let/allow.
• Structure: causative verb + causee + infinitive, with no para or a before the infinitive.
• With a plural causee you may use either the personal infinitive (Fiz eles rirem) or the bare infinitive (Fiz eles rir) — both are correct; bare is more colloquial.
• BR uses subject-form causees colloquially (fiz ele rir) and places pronoun objects before the verb (me fez rir), including sentence-initially.