Transitive Verb

A transitive verb is a verb that requires one or more objects. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects. Transitivity is traditionally thought a global property of a clause, by which activity is transferred from an agent to a patient.

A verb that is followed by an object is called a transitive verb. Transitive verbs can be classified by the number of objects they require. Verbs that require only two arguments, a subject and a single direct object, are monotransitive. Verbs that require two objects, a direct object and an indirect object, are ditransitive, or less commonly bitransitive. An example of a ditransitive verb in English is the verb to give, which may feature a subject, an indirect object, and a direct object: John gave Mary the book. Verbs that take three objects are tritransitive. In English a tritransitive verb features an indirect object, a direct object, and a prepositional phrase – as in I'll trade you this bicycle for your binoculars – or else a clause that behaves like an argument – as in I bet you a pound that he has forgotten. Not all descriptive grammars recognize tritransitive verbs.

In contrast to transitive verbs, some verbs take zero objects. Verbs that do not require an object are called intransitive verbs. An example in English is the verb to swim.

Verbs that can be used in an intransitive or transitive way are called ambitransitive verbs. In English, an example is the verb to eat; the sentences You eat (with an intransitive form) and You eat apples (a transitive form that has apples as the object) are both grammatical.

The concept of valency is related to transitivity. The valency of a verb considers all the arguments the verb takes, including both the subject and all of the objects. In contrast to valency, the transitivity of a verb only considers the objects. Subcategorization is roughly synonymous with valency, though they come from different theoretical traditions.

Traditionally, transitivity patterns are thought of as lexical information of the verb, but recent research in construction grammar and related theories has argued that transitivity is a grammatical rather than a lexical property, since the same verb very often appears with different transitivity in different contexts.

Consider:

• Does your dog bite? (no object)
• The cat bit him. (one object)
• Can you bite me off a piece of banana? (two objects)
• The vase broke. (no object; anticausative construction)
• She broke the toothpick. (one object)
• Can you break me some toothpicks for my model castle? (two objects)
• Stop me before I buy again. (no object; antipassive construction)
• The man bought a ring. (one object)
• The man bought his wife a ring. (two objects)

In grammatical construction theories, transitivity is considered as an element of grammatical construction, rather than an inherent part of verbs.

Examples

The following sentences exemplify transitive verbs in English.

• We're gonna need a bigger boat.
• You need to fill in this form.
• Hang on, I'll have it ready in a minute.
• The professor took off his spectacles.

Intransitive Verb

In grammar, an intransitive verb does not allow a direct object. This is distinct from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. The verb property is called transitivity. Intransitive verbs can often be identified as those which can't be followed by a "who" or a "what".

Examples

In the following sentences, verbs are used without a direct object:

• "Rivers flow."
• "I sneezed."
• "My dog ran."
• "Water evaporates when it's hot."
• "You've grown since I last saw you!"
• "I wonder how old I will be when I die."

The following sentences contain transitive verbs (they take one or more objects):

• "We watched a movie last night."
• "She's eating popcorn."
• "When I said that, my sister smacked me."
• "Santa gave me a present."
• "He continuously clicked his pen and it was incredibly annoying to me."

Some verbs allow for objects but do not always require one. Such a verb may be used as intransitive in one sentence, and as transitive in another:

In general, intransitive verbs often involve weather terms, involuntary processes, states, bodily functions, motion, action processes, cognition, sensation, and emotion.

Valency-changing Operations

The valency of a verb is related to transitivity. Where the transitivity of a verb only considers the objects, the valency of a verb considers all the arguments the verb takes, including both the subject of the verb and all of the objects.

It is possible to change the transitivity of a verb, and in so doing to change the valency.

In languages that have a passive voice, a transitive verb in the active voice becomes intransitive in the passive voice.

In this sentence, hugged is a transitive verb taking Mary as its object. The sentence can be made passive with the direct object Mary as the grammatical subject as follows:

This shift is called promotion of the object.

The passive-voice construction cannot take an object. The passivized sentence could be continued with the agent:

It cannot be continued with a direct object to be taken by was hugged. For example, it would be ungrammatical to write Mary was hugged her daughter in order to show that Mary and her daughter shared a hug.

Intransitive verbs can be made passive in some languages. In English, intransitive verbs can be used in the passive voice when a prepositional phrase is included, as in, The houses were lived in by millions of people.

In the context of a nominative–accusative language like English, this promotion is nonsensical because intransitive verbs don't take objects, they take subjects, and so the subject of a transitive verb (I in I hug him) is also the subject of the intransitive passive construction (I was hugged by him).