'-im' as a Causative — Tok Pisin Grammar

Attached to a word that describes a state rather than an action, the suffix produces a verb meaning "make it that way". This is how Tok Pisin covers, with one ending, a range of English verbs that have nothing in common with each other.

From a State to an Action

means closed and means open. Both describe how something is. Add the suffix and you get the act of putting it into that state.

Stua i pas pinis.
The shop has closed.
Em pasim dua taim mi kam insait pinis.
He shut the door after I came in.
Yupela i op?
Are you open?
Inap yu opim dispela botol?
Can you open this bottle?
Hai, inap yu opim dua, plis?
Hi, could you open the door, please?

The same thing happens with , broken. On its own it says that something is in pieces; with the suffix it says who put it in that condition.

Olpela sia bilong wok bilong mi i bruk.
My old work chair is broken.
Mi brukim han bilong mi long taim mi pilai soka.
I broke my arm playing football.

The Pattern Across the Vocabulary

The pattern runs right through the everyday vocabulary. Notice how far apart the English translations are, and how little there is to remember on the Tok Pisin side.

(down) → (to lower, to bring down)
(straight) → (to fix, to put right)
(clean) → (to clean)
(hot) → (to heat)
(ready) → (to prepare)
(strong) → (to strengthen)

Inap yu daunim prais?
Can you lower the price?
Man ya bai stretim televisin bilong mi long Tunde.
That man will fix my television on Tuesday.
Mi mas klinim toilet.
I have to clean the toilet.
Hatim wel bilong kuk.
Heat the cooking oil.
Pastaim stadi na redim tingting.
First study and prepare your thoughts.

Verbs as Well as States

The same ending turns a verb that happens on its own into one you do to someone else. is to get up, so is to wake somebody; is to come into being, so is to bring something about.

Inap yu kirapim mi taim balus i pundaun?
Can you wake me when the plane lands?
Ol i bin kamapim wanpela buk tu.
They also produced a book.

This does not reach every verb - you cannot build a causative from , to fall, for instance - so treat the ones you meet as vocabulary rather than as a form you can generate at will.

One Trap

is not built from , "cold". It comes from English "call", means to call or to name, and is a very common word.

Long tok Inglis ol i kolim kle.
In English they call it clay.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Tok Pisin course

17 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 74. A few of them, with the words “'-im' as a Causative” is about in bold:

Mi mas klinim toilet. Em doti nogut tru.
I need to clean the toilet. It is too dirty.
Lesson 469

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