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.
- Example: He bought.
- 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.
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.
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
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