Page 515 - Basic Japanese

Chichi wa ani o ikasemashita.

My father had my older brother go there.

Chichi wa ani ni tegami o kakasemashita.
My father had my older brother write a letter.

The causative is largely limited to situations in which a

person is in a position to order or permit an action on the
part of another person. For an act done as a favor, you use

an expression with morau or itadaku. So, while you might say,
‘My father had my older brother write the letter’ with the

causative, you probably wouldn’t say my older brother had
my father write the letter’ with the causative, since the

social situation would indicate this was a favor. Compare the
above sentence with the following:

Ani wa chichi ni tegami o kaite moraimashita.
My brother had my father write a letter.

Here are some additional examples of uses of the

causative:

Donna mono o kodomo ni tabesasemasu ka.

What kind of things do you feed the children?

Tomodachi o mataseru koto wa yoku arimasen yo.