Causative Constructions in Catalan

In Brief

Catalan normally uses fer + infinitive when someone causes an action: Em fa riure means “He or she makes me laugh,” while He fet reparar el cotxe means “I had the car repaired.” Use deixar + infinitive for permission: Deixa'm parlar means “Let me speak.” Only fer or deixar is conjugated; the verb naming the resulting action stays in the infinitive.

Overview

A causative construction presents one person or thing as responsible for another action. Compare La Júlia canta (“Júlia sings”) with El professor fa cantar la Júlia (“The teacher makes Júlia sing”). In the second sentence, the teacher is the causer (the person who brings the action about), and Júlia is the causee (the person who actually sings).

Catalan commonly builds this meaning with a conjugated form of fer (“to make, cause, have”) followed by an infinitive (the basic verb form, such as cantar, venir, or reparar). The same structure can describe direct pressure, an indirect cause, an arrangement, or a paid service. Context tells you whether fer is best translated as English “make,” “cause,” “get,” or “have.”

At B2, the main challenge is not forming fer + infinitive. It is keeping track of who performs each action, where any objects go, and which short pronoun to use. Deixar + infinitive belongs in the same practical family but reverses the idea: the causer allows an action instead of bringing it about.

How It Works

The basic pattern with fer

The central pattern is:

Role	Pattern	Example
Causer	conjugated fer	La directora va fer...
Resulting action	infinitive	...entrar...
Causee	noun phrase or pronoun	...els convidats

Together: La directora va fer entrar els convidats — “The director had the guests come in.”

Only fer carries tense and person. The second verb does not agree with the causee:

• Faig venir el tècnic. — “I have the technician come.”
• Vam fer venir el tècnic. — “We had the technician come.”
• Faran venir el tècnic. — “They will have the technician come.”

The infinitive remains venir in every sentence. English often inserts a noun between “make” and the following verb, but the compact Catalan construction normally keeps fer + infinitive together: fer entrar els convidats, not a word-for-word copy of “make the guests enter.”

When the infinitive has no direct object

A direct object is the person or thing directly affected by a verb. If the infinitive is intransitive—that is, it has no direct object of its own—the causee normally functions as the direct object of the complete causative construction:

• La broma fa riure la Clara. — “The joke makes Clara laugh.”
• La broma la fa riure. — “The joke makes her laugh.”
• Van fer entrar els convidats. — “They had the guests come in.”
• Els van fer entrar. — “They had them come in.”

This distinction is clearest in the third person because Catalan uses direct-object forms such as el, la, els, and les. In Em fa riure, the form em does not visibly show the distinction, because first-person pronoun forms overlap across several functions.

When the infinitive already has a direct object

If the infinitive is transitive and already has its own direct object, the causee is commonly introduced by a and represented by an indirect-object pronoun (a short form marking the other participant, often translatable as “to someone”):

• La professora fa repetir la frase als alumnes. — “The teacher makes the students repeat the sentence.”
• La professora els fa repetir la frase. — “The teacher makes them repeat the sentence.”
• El cap va fer signar el document a la Marta. — “The manager made Marta sign the document.”
• El cap li va fer signar el document. — “The manager made her sign the document.”

Here la frase and el document are the direct objects of repetir and signar. The people doing those actions are therefore expressed with a la Marta, als alumnes, li, or els (where els is also the plural indirect-object form).

A useful contrast is:

Infinitive pattern	Full causee	Pronoun
fer riure la Marta	no object after riure	fer-la riure
fer llegir el text a la Marta	el text is the object of llegir	fer-li llegir el text

With two third-person pronouns, Catalan combination rules also apply, and actual forms can differ by dialect. At this level, it is often clearer to retain one full noun phrase: Li van fer tornar el llibre a l'Arnau or, if the meaning permits, recast the sentence rather than forcing a difficult pronoun cluster.

Where pronouns go

An unstressed short pronoun such as em, la, or li is called a clitic. In these constructions, it normally attaches grammatically to the conjugated verb group rather than standing next to the infinitive in the English position.

• La fan esperar. — “They make her wait.”
• No em deixen sortir. — “They do not let me leave.”
• Me l'han fet tornar a escriure. — “They made me write it again.”

With an affirmative imperative, the pronoun follows deixar and is joined with an apostrophe or hyphen as required:

• Deixa'm parlar! — “Let me speak!”
• Deixeu-los entrar. — “Let them come in.”

With a negative command, it comes before the verb:

• No els deixeu entrar. — “Do not let them come in.”

Deixar + infinitive: allowing an action

Deixar followed by an infinitive means “to let” or “to allow”:

• Els pares deixen jugar els nens al jardí. — “The parents let the children play in the garden.”
• Ens van deixar sortir abans. — “They let us leave early.”
• No li deixen agafar el cotxe. — “They do not let him or her take the car.”

As with fer, the infinitive stays unchanged. The choice between a direct- and indirect-object form is most visible in the third person and is influenced by whether the infinitive has an object of its own. Permissive constructions also show some variation in everyday usage. Learn clear models such as la deixen sortir but li deixen agafar el cotxe, and pay attention to the patterns used in the Catalan variety you hear.

Do not confuse this construction with deixar de + infinitive, which means “to stop doing something”:

• Ha deixat fumar. — “He or she has let someone smoke” (the person allowed is understood from context).
• Ha deixat de fumar. — “He or she has stopped smoking.”

That single de changes the structure and the meaning.

Having something done

When the performer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious, fer + infinitive + object often corresponds to English “have/get something done”:

• He fet reparar el cotxe. — “I had the car repaired.”
• Farem pintar el menjador. — “We will have the dining room painted.”
• Has de fer revisar la caldera. — “You need to have the boiler checked.”

The grammatical subject arranges or causes the service; it does not normally perform it. If the subject is also the person receiving the service, Catalan often uses a reflexive clitic (a short pronoun referring back to the subject):

• Em faig tallar els cabells cada dos mesos. — “I have my hair cut every two months.”
• Es va fer arreglar les ulleres. — “He or she had the glasses repaired.”

The reflexive form does not by itself mean that the subject cut their own hair or repaired their own glasses. The infinitive construction presents the work as done by someone else.

Examples in Context

Catalan	English	Note
He fet reparar el cotxe.	I had the car repaired.	Arranged service; performer omitted
Em fa riure fins i tot quan estic cansat.	He or she makes me laugh even when I am tired.	Emotional effect
Deixa'm parlar!	Let me speak!	Affirmative command with attached pronoun
Van fer entrar els convidats per la porta del darrere.	They had the guests come in through the back door.	Intransitive infinitive
El soroll va fer plorar el nadó.	The noise made the baby cry.	An event, not a person, is the causer
Farem venir un tècnic demà al matí.	We will have a technician come tomorrow morning.	Arranging a visit
La professora els fa repetir la frase.	The teacher makes them repeat the sentence.	Causee plus an embedded direct object
Li han fet signar tots els documents.	They made him or her sign all the documents.	Indirect-object causee
Me l'han fet tornar a escriure.	They made me write it again.	Causee and thing represented by pronouns
Aquesta cançó em fa pensar en l'estiu.	This song makes me think of summer.	Idiomatic mental effect
Ens van deixar sortir mitja hora abans.	They let us leave half an hour early.	Permission with deixar
No deixis entrar ningú sense cita.	Do not let anyone in without an appointment.	Negative command
Es fa tallar els cabells en una perruqueria del barri.	She has her hair cut at a salon in the neighborhood.	Service affecting the subject
La pluja va fer que cancel·léssim el concert.	The rain caused us to cancel the concert.	Finite alternative with fer que

Common Mistakes

Conjugating both verbs

• Wrong: Em fa riu.
• Right: Em fa riure.
• Why: Only fer is conjugated. The action caused must remain in the infinitive: riure, not the finite form riu (“laughs”).

Copying English word order

• Wrong: Van fer els convidats entrar.
• Right: Van fer entrar els convidats.
• Why: In the standard compact causative, fer and the infinitive form a close unit. Put the full causee after that unit.

Using a direct-object pronoun when the infinitive has its own object

• Wrong in the standard causative pattern: La professora la fa llegir el text when la refers to Marta.
• Right: La professora li fa llegir el text. / La professora fa llegir el text a la Marta.
• Why: El text is already the direct object of llegir. Marta is the other participant and is therefore commonly marked as an indirect object with li or a la Marta.

Adding de after deixar for permission

• Wrong: No em deixa de sortir for “He or she does not let me go out.”
• Right: No em deixa sortir.
• Why: Deixar + infinitive means “let.” Deixar de + infinitive means “stop”: He deixat de sortir is “I have stopped going out.”

Assuming fer always means force

• Misleading translation: Demà faré revisar l'ordinador = “Tomorrow I will force the computer to be checked.”
• Natural translation: “Tomorrow I will have the computer checked.”
• Why: Fer + infinitive covers deliberate pressure, indirect causation, and arranged services. Translate the relationship, not fer in isolation.

Putting a command pronoun in the wrong place

• Wrong: Em deixa parlar! as a command to one person.
• Right: Deixa'm parlar!
• Why: In an affirmative imperative, the clitic follows the verb. In a negative command it precedes it: No em deixis sol.

Usage Notes

Meaning comes from the situation

Fer venir may mean “make someone come,” “have someone come,” “call someone in,” or “send for someone.” El metge va fer venir el pacient might describe a request for an appointment, not coercion. Likewise, La notícia em va fer plorar expresses a cause rather than anyone's intention.

If force itself is the important point, Catalan can use a more explicit verb such as obligar a (“compel to”): El van obligar a signar. If persuasion is meant, convèncer de may be more accurate. These alternatives separate meanings that broad English “get someone to” can leave vague.

Mentioning the performer of a service

The person doing arranged work is often omitted because the result matters more: Hem fet instal·lar aire condicionat. If you need to identify the professional, a natural solution is to add a phrase that makes the relationship clear in context, or to use a separate active clause. Avoid building an overloaded sentence with several a-phrases and pronouns when two shorter clauses would be easier to understand.

Natural alternatives

Catalan does not require a compact causative every time English uses “make.” With an emotional or physical result, fer + infinitive is highly natural: fer riure, fer pensar, fer tremolar. In a longer sentence, however, a finite clause with fer que + subjunctive may be clearer. The subjunctive is a verb form used here for the resulting action rather than as an independent assertion:

• La boira va fer que tanquessin l'aeroport. — “The fog caused them to close the airport.”
• La seva pregunta va fer que canviéssim de tema. — “Her question made us change the subject.”

This option explicitly gives the resulting action its own subject and conjugated verb.

Beyond the Basics: Structure, Focus, and Ambiguity

The compact causative behaves like one larger verbal unit even though it contains two verbs. That explains several features at once: only the first verb is conjugated, object pronouns gather around the finite verb group, and the causee's marking depends partly on the arguments already required by the infinitive.

This can create ambiguity. In Va fer perseguir el lladre, el lladre could be understood as the person who was pursued, while a poorly established context might tempt another reading. A full causee with a, a different word order licensed by the intended structure, or a finite fer que clause can make the roles explicit:

• Va fer perseguir el lladre als policies. — “He or she made the police pursue the thief.”
• Va fer que els policies perseguissin el lladre. — “He or she caused the police to pursue the thief.”

Pronoun choice also varies across dialects and conversational usage, particularly where direct- and indirect-object patterns compete. For careful production, first identify the object of the infinitive. If there is already one, use the standard a + causee model and its indirect-object pronoun; if there is not, use the direct-object model. When a cluster becomes hard to parse, repeat a noun instead of treating pronoun compression as a test of fluency.

Finally, reflexive fer-se + infinitive can express deliberate arrangement, personal involvement, or a change affecting the subject: S'ha fet construir una casa (“He or she has had a house built”). Do not translate fer-se mechanically. In other contexts fer-se has lexical meanings such as “become,” “make oneself,” or “join,” which are not causative service constructions.

Practice Tips

1. Build three versions from one action. Start with La Clara riu. Add a cause (La broma fa riure la Clara), then replace the causee (La broma la fa riure). Repeat with entrar, treballar, and plorar.
2. Contrast permission and causation. Make paired sentences such as El deixen sortir and El fan sortir. Say who permits or causes the action and who actually performs it.
3. Practice services you really use. Write five sentences with fer reparar, fer revisar, fer instal·lar, or fer-se tallar. This makes the “have something done” meaning feel separate from literal force.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Verbal Periphrases — reviews how a conjugated verb combines with an infinitive before you add causees, objects, and clitic pronouns.