Japanese with Manga

Made your daughter cry with 泣かせた

Grammar Explanation: Making and letting with 〜せる・〜させる

Manga panel from 夢みる太陽 showing example of Made your daughter cry with 泣かせた.
夢みる太陽 » Volume 10 » Page 224

Saeko is invited to a Christmas party by the boy she likes, but her father forbids her from going.

ママ:
「パパー！？　またサエコ泣(な)かせたの！？」
“Dad!? Did you make Saeko cry again!?”
パパ:
「泣(な)きたいのはこっちだ」
“I'm the one who feels like crying.”

Key Points

1泣(な)かせた means made someone cry
  • 泣(な)く becomes the causative 泣(な)かせる, then the past form 泣(な)かせた.
  • Here the causative describes causing an emotional reaction. It does not suggest that Dad ordered her to cry.
2サエコ has an omitted を
  • The fuller phrase is サエコを泣(な)かせた. Saeko is the person who cries, and Dad is the person Mom holds responsible.
  • また means “again”, so Mom treats this as something Dad has done before.
3The final の asks Dad to explain
  • 泣(な)かせたの！？ is a casual explanatory question. Mom is asking Dad to account for Saeko’s tears, with surprise and accusation in her tone.
4泣(な)きたいのはこっちだ puts the focus on Dad
  • 泣(な)きたい combines the verb stem 泣(な)き with たい. Here it means “feel like crying”.
  • The の in 泣(な)きたいのは turns the phrase into a noun phrase, “the one who feels like crying”, which allows は to set it as the topic. This の has a different role from Mom’s sentence-ending の.
  • こっち literally refers to “this side”, but Dad uses it for himself. He insists that he is the one who feels like crying.

See Also

夢みる太陽 © its respective creators. It is used here for educational commentary.