14.6 Causative Verbs – A Door Into Hindi

14.6	Causative Verbs

View movie about Causative VerbsCausative 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