The Chain of Command: Causative-Passive
To express that an action was ordered or caused to be done by an unnamed third party, Turkish combines two voice suffixes: the Causative and the Passive.
First, add a causative suffix (like -tIr or -t) to the verb stem to mean "to make or have someone do" an action. Then, add the passive suffix (-Il) to shift the focus away from the person giving the order, highlighting instead that the command itself was issued and executed.
Because causative suffixes end in consonants like r or t, the passive suffix attached to them will always follow 4-way vowel harmony as -ıl, -il, -ul, or -ül.
| to destroy | imha etmek |
| The enemy base was ordered to be destroyed. | Düşman üssü imha ettirildi. |
Building the Double Suffix
The exact shape of the double causative-passive suffix attaches the passive -Il immediately to the verb's standard causative form.
| Verb Stem | Causative | Causative-Passive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| yap- | yaptır- | yaptırıl- | to be ordered to be done |
| taşı- | taşıt- | taşıtıl- | to be made to be carried |
| konuş- | konuştur- | konuşturul- | to be forced to speak |
| boşalt- | boşalttır- | boşalttırıl- | to be ordered to be emptied |
If you need to mention the specific people ordered or forced to carry out the action, they take the dative case (-a / -e), acting as the indirect object of the enforcement.
| For the operation, the soldiers were made to carry the ammunition. | Operasyon için mühimmat askerlere taşıtıldı. |
| The enemy forces who did not escape were forced to drop their weapons. | Kaçmayan düşman kuvvetlerine silah bıraktırıldı. |
| Were the spy and the prisoners forced to talk? | Casus ve esirler zorla konuşturuldu mu? |
| Was that secret base ordered to be evacuated immediately? | O gizli üs hemen boşalttırıldı mı? |
| This intelligence was ordered to be hidden from everyone. | Bu istihbarat herkesten gizletildi. |