# make someone do something - causative



## Odriski

Dobrý den! I want to know if there any causative expression in czech language? 
e.g a)The beautiful music makes me dance
     b) The joke makes me laugh
     c) I could not make him talk to me.
In the above 3 sentences, each of them has "make" to express the causative. So, I am wondering, if there are any similar word to express the causative?

Děkuji


----------



## marsi.ku

I'm not Hrdlodus, but if you want to read my answer, I can tell you something. 

The Czech language is very concrete in its expressions and as English or other languages has the phrasal verbs or other constructions we are used to employ a concrete verb.
So if in English we have the phrasal verb "make someone do something" in Czech we need a concrete situation to express it.
Then I propose the following translation:
a) Ta krásná hudbě mě roztančila. (altough this sentence is in past)  /  Ta krásná hudba mě nutí tančit. / Z té krásné hudby tančím. / Pro tu krásnou hudbu tančím.
b) Ten vtip mě (vždy) rozesměje. / Tomu vtipu se pokaždé zasměju.
c) Nepodařilo se mi, aby si se mnou promluvil.

I remind that these translations are only suggestions and to express it exactly, you need to know a situation.
Hope it was useful and answered well.


----------



## Hrdlodus

Bohužel, to je otázka na někoho, kdo je znalý principů češtiny.
I'm sorry, this is question for someoone deeply interested in Czech.


----------



## Odriski

Ahoj! Vážené *marsi.ku* a *Hrdlodus*
Našel jsem několik  						příkladů o slove "přimět", které může vyslovit větu jako "make somebody to do". 
1)Soutěžící získávají body, když se jim podaří výběrem písní přimět posluchače k tanci/The contestants score points, when their choice of music compels the audience to dance.
2)Zeptal jsem se sám sebe: Jak přimět tyto lidi aby začali oceňovat i to nehmatatelné?/So I started asking myself the question: How can we get leaders to start valuing the intangible?
3)Vědci mohou přimět tuto bytost jít doleva či doprava./The scientists can make this creature go left, right.
http://cs.bab.la/slovnik/cesky-anglicky/přimět
Tak myslým, že "přimět někoho dělat" nebo "přimět k něčemu" může vyslovit "make somebody to do", že? Co si myslíte o tom? Čekám na vás názory. Děkuji


----------



## morior_invictus

Odriski said:


> "make somebody to do"





marsi.ku said:


> "make someone do something"





Odriski said:


> Tak myslým, že "přimět někoho dělat" nebo "přimět k něčemu" může  vyslovit "make somebody to do", že?


přimět někoho k něčemu, přinutit někoho k něčemu, nutiť někoho k něčemu, donutit někoho k něčemu, dohnat někoho k něčemu, atd.


marsi.ku said:


> The Czech language is very concrete in its expressions and as English or   other languages has the phrasal verbs or other constructions we are   used to employ a concrete verb.
> So if in English we have the phrasal verb "make someone do something" in Czech we need a concrete situation to express it.
> _*[...]*_
> I remind that *these translations are only suggestions and to express it exactly, you need to know a situation.*


P.S. I don't like the translations from _*cs.bab.la*_ you have provided us with.


----------



## Hrdlodus

Nejsem znalec v angličtině, ale já bych to byl schopen použít. Mně se zdá, že jste "přimět" pochopil správně.


----------



## Odriski

Děkuji za vás odpověď, ale proč nemáte rád překládání z _*cs.bab.la *_? Tam jsou nějaké chyby?


----------



## Tchesko

To me, only the translation #1 sounds natural in Czech. The translations #2 and #3 sound... well, like translations. By the way, there is a comma missing in the translation #2 (after _lidi_).
_Přimět někoho k něčemu_ and the other translations suggested by morior_invictus are ok as generic expressions of the causative but I would tend to agree with marsi.ku. The Czech uses verbal prefixes a lot. Verbs such as _roztančit někoho _and _rozesmát někoho_ are in my opinion the most idiomatic translations of "make someone dance" / "make someone laugh". But this works on a case-by-case basis.


----------



## George1992

Odriski said:


> Dobrý den! I want to know if there any causative expression in czech language?
> e.g a)The beautiful music makes me dance -> makes me dance = mě *roz*tančí
> b) The joke makes me laugh -> makes me laugh = mě *roz*esměje
> c) I could not make him talk to me. -> Nemohla jsem ho *přinutit, aby* se mnou mluvil.
> In the above 3 sentences, each of them has "make" to express the causative. So, I am wondering, if there are any similar word to express the causative?
> 
> Děkuji


----------



## julezz30

I am a bit late to the party here... For background- I'm native Czech, but I've studied linguistics (in English) and wrote my Master's Thesis on Causatives (in Nasioi, not Czech). But I'm a nerd and was thinking about Czech, and of course the more I thought, the less I could come up with something. 

I can give a little linguistic perspective on the above though:

Coming in from English it seems like the OP is looking for periphrastic (or analytic) construction (like English _make, force_). Czech does have the above mentioned *přimět/přinutit *which does translate to 'compel/force' someone to do something, and it is used in the main clause with the lexical verb in a subordinate clause as in "Jak přimět tyto lidi aby začali oceňovat i to nehmatatelné?" from the above example...

More commonly though Czech uses the morphological causative 'roz' prefix. So 'made me laugh' is 'rozesmál mě' with the root 'smát se' (to be laughing). And this is very very common. So spilt milk would be 'rozlité mléko'  from 'leje' 'lít' 'vylít'  or 'melted the ice' as 'led roztál' (change of state) although here it is intransitive. Anyways, if you do look at Czech verbs in detail, you will find that verbs are pretty intense with how much marking on verbal root tells you about the rest of the sentence, especially past tense, but you will have prefixes to change from perfective to imperfect forms etc and causative generally works the same.


----------



## earrings

Hrdlodus said:


> Bohužel, to je otázka na někoho, kdo je znalý principů češtiny.
> I'm sorry, this is question for someoone deeply interested in Czech.


Please note that “znaly” does not translate to “deeply interested”. Znaly principu češtiny just means versed in Czech (language) grammar. You can be obviously deeply interested in something without knowing that much about it.


----------

