ġiegħel + imperfect

Causing an Event

Level 5

Ġiegħel agrees with the causer; the causee is marked with lil or an attached object pronoun, and the imperfect agrees with the causee.

How It Works

Ġiegħel means “made” or “compelled” somebody to act. The verb agrees with the causer: ġiegħel for masculine singular, ġiegħlet for feminine singular, and ġegħilna for “we made.” Mark a personal causee with lil, including article combinations such as lit-tfal, or use an attached direct-object pronoun.

The following verb takes imperfect morphology and agrees with the causee: children jaqraw, Pawlu jidħol, and the girl taqra. Do not replace it with a perfect or add an independently tensed future chain in this construction. The causative verb supplies the event’s time/aspect. Making somebody act differs from granting permission with ħalla.

Some separate lexical verbs also describe caused changes: daħħal, “brought in,” is related to daħal, “entered.” Such verbs have their own meanings and participant structure. Consonant doubling is not a freely applicable causative recipe for every verb.

Examples (3)

  1. L-għalliem ġiegħel lit-tfal jaqraw il-ktieb.

    The teacher made the children read the book.

    Ġiegħel agrees with the teacher; lit-tfal marks the causee and plural jaqraw identifies the readers.

  2. Marija ġiegħlet lil Pawlu jidħol fil-kamra.

    Marija made Pawlu enter the room.

    Ġiegħlet agrees with Marija, while masculine singular jidħol agrees with the causee Pawlu.

  3. Ġegħilna lit-tifla taqra l-ittra.

    We made the girl read the letter.

    Ġegħilna identifies us as the causers; taqra agrees with the girl in this context.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ġiegħel + imperfectLevel 5Causing an Event

Learn This First

Teach the causee's dual role as causative object and actor of the imperfect complement. Contrast causing with permission, while treating separate derived causatives as lexical verbs rather than a freely applied doubling rule.