what is it?
Spanish uses a small group of verbs — principally dejar, permitir, prohibir, and causative hacer — to express that one person allows, forbids, or causes another person to do something. The most direct construction pairs the influence verb with a dative clitic (me, te, le, nos, os, les) that identifies the affected person, followed immediately by an infinitive. An alternative construction replaces the infinitive with que + subjunctive; both are grammatically correct and largely interchangeable. The construction with que + indicative is never used after these verbs.
when to use it
Permission: Use dejar or permitir when one party grants another person the right or freedom to do something. «Mis padres me dejan salir los fines de semana.»
Prohibition: Use prohibir when one party prevents or forbids another from doing something. «El médico le prohibió fumar.»
Causation: Use causative hacer when one person or thing brings about an action or emotional reaction in another. «Esa película siempre me hace llorar.»
Infinitive vs. que + subjunctive: Both «no me dejan salir» and «no dejan que salga» are correct. The infinitive construction is more compact; the subjunctive construction is slightly more formal or emphatic. Choose either freely, but never use que + indicative.
formation
The core pattern is: [subject] + [dative clitic] + [influence verb] + [infinitive]. The dative clitic is placed before the conjugated influence verb (or attached to it as an enclitic in certain non-finite contexts). The infinitive that follows is always in its base form — it does not agree with any noun.
| influence verb | meaning | example (clitic + verb + infinitive) |
|---|---|---|
| dejar | to let / allow | no me dejan salir |
| permitir | to permit / allow | le permitieron entrar |
| prohibir | to forbid / prohibit | le prohibió fumar |
| hacer | to make / cause | me hace llorar |
When the alternative que + subjunctive construction is used, the dative clitic is dropped and the affected person becomes the explicit subject of the subordinate clause: «le permitieron entrar» → «permitieron que entrara».
With hacer the infinitive follows directly with no preposition: «me hace llorar», never «me hace a llorar». No other influence verb in this group takes a preposition before the infinitive either.
examples in context
common pitfalls
que + indicative after an influence verb. These verbs trigger the subjunctive in a subordinate clause, not the indicative. «*No dejan que salgo» is wrong. Use either the infinitive construction «no me dejan salir» or the subjunctive «no dejan que salga».
Inserting a before the infinitive after hacer. Causative «hacer» takes the infinitive directly. «*Me hace a llorar» is incorrect; the correct form is «me hace llorar». No preposition is used.
Dropping the dative clitic. The clitic is obligatory in the infinitive construction because it is the only element that identifies who is affected. «*Mis padres no dejan salir» leaves the affected person unspecified and sounds incomplete. Say «mis padres no me dejan salir».
Three sentences, graded here. Nothing is saved and no account is needed.
El profesor es tan fanático de la lectura que nos ___ leer un libro entero cada mes. (hacer)
Fill in the blank with the correct form of the verb in parentheses, using the causative or permissive construction.