Make, Let, and Have: The Causative Verb Korean Speakers Mix Up
Korean expresses force, permission, and arrangement with one causative pattern, 시키다 or -게 하다, so students map all three onto a single English verb, usually "make," producing sentences like "My mother made me clean my room" when they mean "had" or "let."
Park English2026-09-142 min read
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Every English causative verb answers a slightly different question: did the person want to, or not? English speakers sort that automatically. Korean speakers often can't, because Korean doesn't force the sort in the first place.
Why this happens
Korean builds causatives mainly two ways: attaching a causative suffix to the verb, or using 시키다 (literally "to cause/order") with a noun. Both patterns cover a wide range of meaning. 엄마가 청소시켰어 can mean "Mom made me clean," "Mom had me clean," or even "Mom got me to clean," depending entirely on context and tone, not on the verb form. English refuses to be that flexible. It picks the verb based on whether the subject used force, gave permission, or simply arranged for something to happen.
So when a student translates straight across, "make" wins by default, because 시키다 sounds closest to "make someone do something." The result is a student who says "make" for every situation, including ones where a native speaker would say "let" or "have."
| Korean idea | What actually happened | Correct English verb |
|---|---|---|
| 하게 시켰다 (forced, no choice) | Subject was compelled, often against will | make + base verb |
| 하게 해줬다 (permission granted) | Subject wanted to, and was allowed | let + base verb |
| 시켰다 (arranged, neutral) | Subject was assigned or instructed | have + base verb |
| 설득해서 하게 했다 (persuaded) | Subject was talked into it | get + to + verb |
Notice the last row is the odd one out grammatically: "get" is the only one that takes "to." That inconsistency trips up even strong students who've otherwise memorized the chart, and honestly it trips up some native speakers writing quickly too. We don't correct that one hard in speaking class. It's a written-accuracy fight, not a fluency fight.
Drills that actually fix it
- Give ten Korean sentences using 시키다 or -게 하다 and ask students to identify, before translating, whether the subject was forced, allowed, or just arranged. Colour-code the three categories. This forces the sorting step Korean doesn't require.
- Transformation drill: give "make" sentences and have students rewrite them as "let" or "have" sentences with a one-line context change. Example: "My teacher made me stay after class" → add "because I asked for extra help" → now it's "let."
- Error correction from real student writing. Pull five sentences from actual homework (anonymized) that misuse "make." Nothing lands harder than students recognizing their own class's mistakes on the board.
- Oral only: teacher says a Korean sentence with 시키다, three students each propose a different English translation using make, let, or have, class votes on which context fits.
One honest caveat: some Korean textbooks used in public middle schools still translate 시키다 as "make" in every example sentence, because it's the safest single-word gloss. If your students insist "the book says make," that's why. It isn't wrong so much as incomplete.