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I've always been little fuzzy on transitive verbs, something which I was
reminded of when looking at [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/5093/119).

The answer says that `終{お}わらせる`, `終{お}える`, `済{す}ませる`, and `済{す}ます` are all
transitive. They all mean "to finish" something, as in something doesn't
finish by itself (intransitive), someone makes it finish (transitive).

I get the nuance of difference between the kanji `終`, `済` as explained in the
answer.

But what is the difference between `終{お}わらせる` and `終{お}える`? And what is the
difference between `済{す}ませる`, and `済{す}ます`?

I'm really asking more generally about the transitive verb form. Both versions
of each verb are transitive, but I'm not clear on how they differentiate.

_(My knowledge of grammatical and linguistic terms is very limited, so a
minimum of technical terms would be much appreciated.`よろしく`!)_
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2012-04-03T01:46:01.600
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question
grammar word-choice verbs causation
What's the difference between these two transitive verb forms?
As for 済ます and 済ませる, from my research it looks like the meaning of the two is
equivalent.

The せる in 済ませる denotes causation, the same as in 食べさせる or 話させる.

The す in 済ます is the old form of せる, and is still sometimes used (opinion seems
divided on where exactly. I would love to know if there's a specific region).

Therefore 済ませる is now the common usage, where originally it was 済ます.

Other examples of the same phenomenon would be 燃やす and 生かす。

There is a much more exhaustive discussion in the second source below that you
may want to see.

As for 終える and 終わらせる, the meaning is the same, but the causative せる lends a
sense of achievement or overcoming hardship to finish something, whereas 終える
seems more incidental.

It's also worth noting that 終える, out of context, has two possible meanings
(the one from this discussion, and the meaning of something ending by
itself/naturally), whereas 終わらせる has only one meaning and so could be be
considered clearer in certain circumstances.

Sources (Japanese):
[1](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=%E6%B8%88%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99%E3%80%80%E6%B8%88%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1213364252&ei=y3N6T9uXGorN8QOEhICRBQ&usg=AFQjCNE0LyUn3PFKTFF-
xlcJlpsPsZIRYw&sig2=RJAd4kYJLQP0SwwWOplkmw),
[2](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=%E6%B8%88%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99%E3%80%80%E6%B8%88%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDQQFjAB&url=http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1444821814&ei=y3N6T9uXGorN8QOEhICRBQ&usg=AFQjCNERdFLmEyGwqEB2spLCCihYFRyCjg&sig2=Os6LKHuW8JpQrLtzqUfQqA),
[3](http://questionbox.jp.msn.com/qa4618036.html)
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2012-04-03T04:06:19.070
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answer