行かせる means "send" rather than "make someone go"


行かせる - Make someone go

I saw this sentence, "息子を公立学校に行かせてください" and it seems to translate to "Please
**send** your child to a public school" instead of "please make your child go
to a public school". The question is, why does the causative form of 行く
translates to "send" instead of "make someone go"




You can take this 「せる」 as the causative or imperative form, but the context
determines which. It is a bit complicated.

According to [コトバンク](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B-549042):

> 相手が自分の思うようにするよう。また、ある事態が起こるようにしむける意を表す。

「息子を公立学校に行かせてください」 : "Please make your child go to a public school"

Your son might want to go to a private school for some reason. In this case,
you can't allow him to go there. So, you might be asking the teacher to
persuade him to go to a public school.

* * *

In another scenario,

> （「せていただく」「せてもらう」の形で）相手方の許しを求めて行動する意を表す。「言わ **せて** いただく」「やら **せて** もらう」

It is asking someone for a permission to do something (If the situation were
special, it might be making allowance to do something.).

So, 「息子を公立学校に行かせてください」 means _"Please let my son choose to go / allow my son
to go to a public school"_ In this case, the teacher might be stopping your
son from going to a public school.




You can take this 「せる」 as the causative or imperative form, but the context
determines which. It is a bit complicated.

According to [コトバンク](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B-549042):

> 相手が自分の思うようにするよう。また、ある事態が起こるようにしむける意を表す。

「息子を公立学校に行かせてください」 : "Please make your child go to a public school"

Your son might want to go to a private school for some reason. In this case,
you can't allow him to go there. So, you might be asking the teacher to
persuade him to go to a public school.

* * *

In another scenario,

> （「せていただく」「せてもらう」の形で）相手方の許しを求めて行動する意を表す。「言わ **せて** いただく」「やら **せて** もらう」

It is asking someone for a permission to do something (If the situation were
special, it might be making allowance to do something.).

So, 「息子を公立学校に行かせてください」 means _"Please let my son choose to go / allow my son
to go to a public school"_ In this case, the teacher might be stopping your
son from going to a public school.

