What are transitive and intransitive verbs?
What are transitive and intransitive verbs?
3 Answers
Here is a short lesson and examples that might help:
In English, many verbs can be used transitively (with a direct object) or intransitively (without a direct object).
The sun dried the clothes. (transitive)
The clothes dried in the sun. (intransitive)
In Spanish, these intransitive constructions frequently employ the reflexive form.
The sun dried the clothes. (transitive)
El sol secó la ropa.
The clothes dried in the sun. (intransitive)
La ropa se secó al sol.
In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object) are the same. For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself. In a wider sense, the phrase refers to any verb form whose grammatical object is a reflexive pronoun, regardless of semantics; such verbs are also referred to as pronominal verbs, especially in grammars of the Romance languages.
There are languages that have explicit morphology to transform a verb into a reflexive form. English employs reflexive derivation idiosyncratically, as in "self-destruct"; Romance languages do the same with the Greek-derived prefix auto-.
In many languages, reflexive constructions are rendered by transitive verbs followed by a reflexive pronoun, as in English -self (e.g., "She threw herself to the floor.")
It seems there is confusion. English and Spanish obviously are not built alike; On the other end French might be closer to Spanish so let me give you the "French" explanation.
First there are different kinds of verbs, some are action verbs (to burn, to eat) and some are state verbs (to feel as in feeling ill.)
Then there is "la voix du verbe", I cannot translate directly as it would be "the voice of the verb" instead let's say it is the mean to decide who does what to whom. Active voix: the fire burns. Passive voix: the wood is burnt (or being burnt.) Pronominal voix: He burnt (himself.)
As for the transitive and intransitive forms most verbs don't possess that "state" by birth but rather by situation. A transitive situation is when the action is applied onto an object (he eats an apple.) In the intransitive state there is no object (he eats.) In the transitive form the object can be direct (he remembers his youth) or indirect (it reminds him of his youth). An example of intransitive "by birth" is to snow, we cannot "snow something." On the contrary "to give" (in French) cannot be use without a complement and is therefore transitive "by birth" since French don't give up or give in as they have a specific verb for each.
Extract "prono" from pronominal and you have the definition of a pronominal verb…a verb accompanied by a pronoun. There are 4 forms of pronominal: reflective, reciprocal, passive and subjective. Reflective: In French conjugation "je me lave"…I was myself. The subject applies an action on himself. Reciprocal: "ils se regardent"…they are looking at each other. The action goes both ways. Passive: "il s'appelle Pierre"…his name is Peter. The person or thing that accomplishes the action is not named. Subjective (or essentially pronominal): s'accouder, s'écrouler, se méfier, s'exclamer, s'écrier…no English translation that I know of. The pronoun is incorporated with the verb.
It is important to know in what category a verb fits in order to apply the proper terminaison to the "Participe passé" as in "elle s'est blessée"…but that is yet another story.
Transitive verbs take a direct object (such as: to raise, to spend, to waste). Intransitive verbs don't (such as: to sleep, to wake up, to swim).
Good luck.
