Causative Verbs Lesson

This is a certain structure used in Nepali to demonstrate causation in verbs. I recently came to understand this structure a bit better, so I will explain what I have come to learn and provide some examples. Knowing how to create causative verbs is very helpful because it simply expands upon what verbs you may already know! In general, causative verbs are where the subject does not do the action, but someone or something else does the action for them.

If you are wondering what is meant by causative verbs in Nepali, here is a simple example.

The verb हिड्नु hiDnu means to “to walk.” The causative verb form of this is हिडाउनु hiDaaunu which means “to make walk.” So, in a sentence this could be used as follows:

His mother made him walk to school.

उसको आमाले उसलाई विद्यालयमा हिडाउनुभायो

हिडाउनु is conjugated for the formal third person, or for the boys’ mother, as she is the one making her son walk.

STRUCTURE

Verb stem (VS) + आउनु

Example:

bannu –> banaaunu

बन्नु  –> बनाउनु

(to become–> to make/create)

As always, there are some exceptions………

Irregularities

खानु

The verb “to eat” khaanu  खानु can be made into the causative verb “to feed,” (or “to make eat”)  khuwaunu खुवाउनु .

Other irregularities occur when a verb already has the “aau” as part of the verb stem. In this case, the form of adding “aaunu” would be very difficult to say (“aauaaunu” is a mouthful!) so, the structure looks like this:

VS+ न + लगाउनु

For example,

Aaunu –>  aaune lagaaunu

आउनु –>  आउन लगाउनु

to come–> to make come

Here is an example of how causative verbs can be used in a sentence:

पञ्चायत व्यवस्थामा सबै बिद्यार्थीहरुलाई रास्ट्रीय गान गाउन लागियो।

The translation of this sentence is: During the Panchayat period, all students were made to sing the national anthem.

Note that the लागियो conjugation is for the passive voice, as there is no subject in this sentence “making” the students sing.

Using ले and लाई 

For the person or subject “being caused” or “being made” to do an action, you should use “लाई”

For active voice: For the person or object that is making someone or something else do the action (if using past tense) should have “ले” as appropriate (transitive verbs take “ले”). See the examples used before:

उसको आमाले उसलाई विद्यालयमा हिडाउनुभायो

आमाले –> Aamaa (mother) made him/her do the action

उसलाई–> he/she had to do the action 

Practice!

Can you change these into their causative verb form?