How does one translate "to make someone do something"?

Question

I understand that devigi means "to compel, to force", but how would one translate it with another action?

For example:

• Don't make me do that
• I make her take pictures of me

Would these sentences be translated as:

• Ne devigu min pri fari tion
• Mi devigas ŝin pri foti min

Or is there a better way to state this?

Answer 1

For the first one you can use farigi or you can use a construction with -ig- and an infinitive. From PIV:

farigi. Kaŭzi, ke iu faru: farigi al si ŝuojn laŭmezure; ni farigos al ni konsciencon laŭ la plej nova fasonoᶻ

Thus you could translate these sentences respectively as:

• Ne farigu al mi tion!
• Mi igas ŝin foti min. (Or possibly: Mi fotigas al ŝi min, but that sounds a bit odd to me.)

The combination pri + infinitive is not grammatically sound. Often a more natural way to translate these kinds of phrases is with -ig- and a subordinate clause:

• Mi igas, ke ŝi fotas min.

Note how this makes it much clearer who is taking pictures of whom.

You could use devigi here, but that really means that you require that someone do something as an obligation, rather than just make or let them do something (as per request or such). This would work well in the first sentence though: Ne devigu min fari tion. or Ne devigu, ke mi faru tion.

Answer 2

The prefix -ig is perfect in this case; either as a verb on its own or combined to the other verb.

• La viro igas la hundon sidi.

or

• La viro sidigas la hundon.

I personally find the first one easier to understand.

Here are some more examples:

Ne igu min diri "adiaŭ". Ŝi igas nin ĉiujn ridi. Li igis la katon forkuri.

When there is an object to the second verb, I do see a slight problem with the double accusatives (which is the case with both your examples), but I don't know quite how to solve this. I'd say:

• Ne igu min tion fari.
• Mi igas ŝin foti min.

Igi can be replaced with devigi if one wants to express forcing or compelling, like you said.