3. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

 

 

Verbs can be classified into transitive and intransitive. A transitive verb needs an object while the intransitive does not. Many verbs can be used as both transitive and intransitive depending on how they are used in a sentence.

 

 

Transitive verb
 
A transitive verb has to be an action verb, and it must have an object. Without an object, it does not convey a complete meaning.
 
  • Example: He bought.
 
The question inevitably arises: What did he buy? No one in the world knows the answer to this question as there is no direct object to tell us what he bought. The meaning becomes clear when an object is added:
 
  • He bought a cake.

 

Now every one of us knows what he bought.

The subject he performs the action bought, which is the transitive verb acting upon the object of the sentence cake.

 

This following example shows each transitive verb (underlined) having a direct object (in bold) to complete the sentence. If it doesn’t have a direct object, it makes the sentence meaningless. 

 

Examples:

  • I have to catch the earliest train tomorrow.
  • We agreed to settle  the lawsuit out of court.
  • I pushed the button and nothing happened.  
  • They picked him as the captain.
  • I wrote the number somewhere. 

     

 

 

A transitive verb may take an indirect object. An indirect object is someone or something to whom/which or for whom/which the action is carried out.

 

 

(a)  Example: He bought her a cake. / He bought a cake for her.               

(b)  Example: She is reading grandma a fairy tale. / She is reading a fairy tale to         grandma.

 

 

In the Example (a), the indirect object is her as it is for her that the cake was bought. 
In the Example (b), the indirect object is grandma as it is to her that the fairy tale is read.
The indirect object usually comes before the direct object as happened in the first sentences of the two examples.

 

 
 
Intransitive verb
An intransitive verb does not need an object to make the sentence’s meaning clear. It is enough to complete a sentence without an object as the the meaning of the sentence is not affected. The following examples show the intransitive verbs in bold.

 

Examples:

  • She smiles.
  • The dog is barking..
  • Their plane has already taken off.
  • The people next door are arguing loudly.
  • She has been sneezing since this morning.

     

 

 

Transitive and Intransitive verbs
Many verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. When a transitive verb is used intransitively, the meaning changes. In the following examples, the verbs are underlined and the direct objects are in bold.

 

Examples:

  • Transitive verb: It is better we eat something before we go.
  • Intransitive verb: Our parents like to eat out on Sundays.
  • Transitive verb: She poked the attacker in the left eye.
  • Intransitive verb: He poked at a snake with a stick.
  • Transitive verb: They played hide-and-seek yesterday.
  • Intransitive verb: The children played in the park.
  • Transitive verb: The fat boy cannot touch his toes.
  • Intransitive verb: The sign says,"Please don't touch.".
  • Transitive verb: When she heard what happened, she cried tears of joy.
  • Intransitive verb: Someone is crying loudly.

 

 

Transitive and intransitive verbs in same sentence. 

The following examples show the direct object in bold and the verbs are underlined.

Examples:

  • The villagers caught a boar yesterday, but it escaped this morning.
    (The verb caught is transitive as it has the direct object boar. The other verb escaped is intransitive since it is not followed by an object.)
  • He called me but I was not in the office. 
  • She punched my face but I didn't punch back.
  • When the dog vomited blood, I too wanted to vomit.

 

 

Intransitive verb followed by adverb or prepositional phrase
Since an intransitive verb cannot take an object, it can never be followed by a noun. But it can be followed by an adverb or prepositional phrase, or both.

 

Examples:

  • The family lives upstairs.
    (Intransitive verb lives followed by adverb upstairs.)
  • The stranger bumped into me.
    (Intransitive verb bumped followed by prepositional phrase into me.)
  • The beach slopes down to the sea.
    (Intransitive verb slopes followed by adverb down and prepositional phrase to the sea. 

 

See Different Verb Types: Transitive/Intransitive Verbs