A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 14

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14.6

Causative Verbs


View movie about Causative Verbs

Causative verbs are used in expressions where one person gets someone or something else to perform an action. In most cases, the Causative verb is created from a normal verb by inserting आ (डण्डा) after the verb stem.

Examples:

Basic Verb

 

Causative

 

करना

to do

कराना

to get done, to have done

टैलिफ़ोन करना

to call

टैलिफ़ोन कराना

to have someone call

सुनना

to listen, to hear

सुनाना

to make listen, to tell

देखना

to see

दिखाना

(irregular)

to make see, to show

In the basic verb, the subject itself performs the action, while in the Causative, the subject gets or causes someone or something else to perform the action.

In Hind, the person whom the subject gets to perform the action (the “causee”) takes the postposition से . For example:

A. वह अपने भाई से टैलिफ़ोन कराता है ।

He gets his brother to call.

B. राधा मुझ से घर का काम करायेगी (कराएगी) । 

Radha will get me to do housework.

All Causatives are conjugated just like regular verbs in all tenses. For example

 वह क्या करा रहा है ?

 अपने पति से भी घर का काम कराइये  etc. ………

We will talk about the Second Causative form later.

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000)
Section 18.3 page 244