The Turkish causative turns "X happens" into "someone makes X happen" — pişmek ("to cook, intransitive") becomes pişirmek ("to cook something"), öğrenmek ("to learn") becomes öğretmek ("to teach"). The grammar of what the causative does is covered on the causative voice page; what this reference settles is the purely formal question: which suffix? Turkish has several causative allomorphs — -t, -DIr, -Ir, -It, -Ar — and choosing the right one is mostly predictable from the shape of the stem, with one lexical set you have to memorise.
The good news and the bad news
The good news: for the vast majority of verbs the allomorph is decided by two simple shape facts — how many syllables the stem has and what sound it ends in. The bad news: a closed set of common monosyllables takes an idiosyncratic -Ir, -It, or -Ar that you cannot derive and must learn as vocabulary. This page gives you the predictable rules first, then the list.
okutmak. The shape of the stem usually tells you the answer before you ever reach for -DIr.Rule 1 — -t after polysyllabic vowel-final and l/r-final stems
If the stem has two or more syllables and ends in a vowel or in l or r, the causative is -t (-t, with the linking already built into the stem-final sound). This is fully regular — no list to memorise.
| Base verb | Stem | Causative | Gloss (base → causative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| okumak | oku- | okutmak | read → have (someone) read / teach |
| beklemek | bekle- | bekletmek | wait → keep (someone) waiting |
| uyumak | uyu- | uyutmak | sleep → put (someone) to sleep |
| oturmak | otur- | oturtmak | sit → seat (someone) |
| kısalmak | kısal- | kısaltmak | get shorter → shorten |
| azalmak | azal- | azaltmak | decrease (intr.) → reduce |
Bebeği zar zor uyuttum, lütfen sessiz ol.
I barely got the baby to sleep, please be quiet.
Garson bizi yarım saat bekletti, sonunda kalktık.
The waiter kept us waiting half an hour, in the end we left.
Eteği biraz kısaltırsan tam olur.
If you shorten the skirt a bit, it'll be just right.
Rule 2 — -DIr as the default elsewhere
Most other consonant-final stems — and essentially every polysyllabic stem not covered by Rule 1 — take -DIr (surfacing as -dır/-dir/-dur/-dür or -tır/-tir/-tur/-tür by harmony and voicing). This is the productive default: new and borrowed verbs use it.
| Base verb | Stem | Causative | Gloss (base → causative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| yapmak | yap- | yaptırmak | do → have (something) done |
| gülmek | gül- | güldürmek | laugh → make (someone) laugh |
| yazmak | yaz- | yazdırmak | write → dictate / have written |
| ölmek | öl- | öldürmek | die → kill |
| içmek | iç- | içirmek | drink → make (someone) drink |
| pişmek | piş- | pişirmek | cook (intr.) → cook (something) |
Two of those — içirmek and pişirmek — look like -Ir, and historically they belong to the lexical set in Rule 3; modern Turkish treats iç- and piş- with -Ir. But for the bulk of consonant stems, hear the default as -DIr: yaptır-, güldür-, yazdır-, öldür-.
Saçımı her ay aynı kuaföre kestiririm.
I have my hair cut at the same hairdresser every month.
Bu film çok komik, herkesi güldürüyor.
This film is hilarious, it makes everyone laugh.
Arabayı tamirciye götürüp frenleri yaptıracağım.
I'll take the car to the mechanic and have the brakes done.
Rule 3 — the lexical -Ir / -It / -Ar set
This is the part you must memorise. A closed set of common monosyllables forms its causative with -Ir, -It, or -Ar in ways the shape rules above would not predict. These are high-frequency verbs, so they reward direct study.
| Base verb | Stem | Causative | Allomorph | Gloss (base → causative) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| içmek | iç- | içirmek | -Ir | drink → make drink |
| düşmek | düş- | düşürmek | -Ir | fall → drop |
| geçmek | geç- | geçirmek | -Ir | pass → spend (time) / see off |
| uçmak | uç- | uçurmak | -Ir | fly → make fly / blow away |
| artmak | art- | artırmak | -Ir | increase (intr.) → increase (tr.) |
| batmak | bat- | batırmak | -Ir | sink (intr.) → sink (tr.) / dip |
| korkmak | kork- | korkutmak | -It | be afraid → frighten |
| ürkmek | ürk- | ürkütmek | -It | be startled → startle |
| kopmak | kop- | koparmak | -Ar | snap (intr.) → tear off |
| çıkmak | çık- | çıkarmak | -Ar | go out → take out / remove |
| gitmek | git- | gidermek | -Ar | go → eliminate / dispel |
Two contrasts to notice. First, art- → artır- versus the look-alike -DIr: the vowel here is part of the suffix (-Ir), not the DIr default — there is no d/t before it. Second, the -It group (korkutmak, ürkütmek) is small and ends in -k; treat it as a tiny sub-list rather than a rule.
Bebeğe kaşıkla su içirdim, susamıştı.
I gave the baby water with a spoon — she was thirsty.
Çantamı düşürmüşüm, içinden anahtarlar çıkmış.
Apparently I dropped my bag, and the keys fell out of it.
O maske beni gerçekten korkuttu, hiç beklemiyordum.
That mask really frightened me, I wasn't expecting it at all.
Cebinden telefonu çıkardı ve numarayı çevirdi.
He took the phone out of his pocket and dialled the number.
When two causatives stack
A causative can attach to an already-causative verb, adding a second link in the chain of "making." yapmak ("do") → yaptırmak ("have done") → yaptırtmak ("have someone arrange to have it done"). The allomorph of each layer follows the same shape rules applied to the new, longer stem — and because the intermediate stem is now polysyllabic and r-final, the second layer is usually -t. This stacking is grammatical but rare beyond two layers in real speech.
Müdür raporu bana yazdırdı, ben de asistanıma yazdırttım.
The manager had me write the report, and I in turn had my assistant write it.
Common mistakes
❌ Hocam bize çok kitap okudurdu.
Incorrect — a polysyllabic vowel-final stem takes -t: okutmak, not okudurmak.
✅ Hocam bize çok kitap okuttu.
Our teacher had us read a lot of books.
❌ Çocuğu korkdurma, daha küçük.
Incorrect — korkmak takes the lexical -It: korkutmak, not korkdurmak.
✅ Çocuğu korkutma, daha küçük.
Don't frighten the child, he's still little.
❌ Bebeğe biraz su içdir.
Incorrect — içmek takes the lexical -Ir: içirmek, not içdirmek.
✅ Bebeğe biraz su içir.
Give the baby a little water (lit. make the baby drink).
❌ Garson bizi yarım saat bekledirdi.
Incorrect — beklemek is polysyllabic and vowel-final, so the causative is bekletmek.
✅ Garson bizi yarım saat bekletti.
The waiter kept us waiting half an hour.
düşmek/düşürmek, pişmek/pişirmek, korkmak/korkutmak. They travel in pairs, and storing them together is far cheaper than reconstructing the allomorph later.Key takeaways
- -t after polysyllabic vowel-final and l/r-final stems:
okutmak,oturtmak,kısaltmak,bekletmek. - -DIr is the productive default elsewhere:
yaptırmak,güldürmek,yazdırmak,öldürmek. - A lexical set of monosyllables takes -Ir (
içirmek,düşürmek,geçirmek,artırmak,batırmak), -It (korkutmak,ürkütmek), or -Ar (çıkarmak,koparmak) — memorise these. - Never default everything to -DIr; let the stem's shape choose first.
- Causatives stack, and the second layer usually surfaces as -t on the now-longer stem.
Now practice Turkish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- The Causative -DIr / -t / -IrB1 — How Turkish builds 'make/have someone do' with the causative suffix, which allomorph each verb takes, and how the suffix adds a new causer and demotes the old subject.
- Double and Triple CausativesB2 — How Turkish stacks the causative suffix to add link after link to a chain of command — yaptırtmak 'have someone have it made' — and how each intermediate agent is case-marked.
- Case Marking with CausativesC1 — Why the person you 'made do' something takes the dative after a transitive verb but the accusative after an intransitive one.
- How to Use the Verb ReferenceA2 — How to read the Turkish verb-reference pages — stem, key forms, governed case, and the irregular-feeling details they highlight.