Both of these languages have lexical causative, morphological causative and analytic causative. Lexical causatives in BT and BM languages have subtype (2), which is a verb subtype that is unique and subtype (3), which is a different verb in forming a causative construction.
Both of these languages also recognize direct and indirect causatives. Morphological causatives in the Toba Batak language are characterized by affective causative markers (-hon), (-i), (pa- / par-), (pa-hon), and (pa-) whereas in Mandailing language are marked by causative markers (ma-kon), (pa-kon), (pa-on), (pa-), (tar-). In Batak Toba and Mandailing languages, analytical causatives are found whose construction is formed by predicates containing verbs (intransitive and transitive), adjectives, and nouns and shows causal events with two separate predicates (cause and effect). Penelitian ini merupakan kajian tipologi terhadap bahasa Batak Toba dan bahasa Mandailing. Kedua bahasa ini merupakan bahasa serumpun dengan struktur dan tipologi bahasa yang mirip. Sampai saat ini, kedua bahasa ini masih digunakan secara aktif di wilayah Sumatera Utara.