In-Depth Grammar TRANSITIVE and INTRANSITIVE Verb

It’s been ages since the last time I did some blog posts on this blog. Thing becomes a bit messier once you got a job. You’ve got to adjust one or two things and suddenly months passed by without you realizing it.

I’m planning on doing a series of in depth-grammar on this blog (one of many things which I will probably not going to be able finish later on). As much as I hate grammar, I know that I’m not really good at it, but to deal with that weakness is the purpose of these blog posts. So here comes the 1^st blog post related to Transitive and Intransitive Verb.

1.    Basically Transitive takes object and Intransitive cannot take object. Why?

Transitive	Intransitive
That woman stole my heart. it would be unclear when we say “That woman stole”. We would be wondering what she stole, your bicycle, your smile, your underwear, part of your heart #eaaaa, or what?	She always runs at the jogging track near my house. in this type of verb we cannot put object, imagine your say “She runs a shoes”. What does it mean? Note: One word can be transitive in one meaning and intransitive in another. For example the word run (manage) is transitive. “she runs a small business in the east side of the city”

2.    After some transitive verbs we can leave out the object if the object only gives little extra meaning or even nothing.

My friend is reading a book  

Note: Well my friend could be reading his girlfriend’s mood now but usually what we read is a book. So even if we erase “the book” we know that it must be a book.

 We are going to eat some food

Note: what we eat is mostly a food so even if we erase “some food” we know that its must be a food not a bloody rock (We could be eating puss*** though :)

Here are some examples of these types of words:

ask/answer (a question)

draw/paint (a picture)

enter/leave (a room/building)

pass/fail (a test/exam)

play/win/lose (a game)

practice (a skill)

sing (a song)

speak (a few words)

study (a subject).

3.    Many verbs can be both transitive and Intransitive (Just like bisexual *eh).

Transitive	Intransitive
My cousins is flying the remote control plane	The plane is flying now
The word fly in both sentences have the same meaning but if you say “my cousins is flying” It would create a completely different meaning, so an object is necessary

Here are more examples of these words:

alter develop increase shine tear
begin divide join shut turn
bend drive melt slide weaken
boil dry mix smash unite
break end move soften
burn finish open sound
change fly pour spread
close freeze ring stand
cook hang roll start
combine harden sail stop
continue hurt separate strengthen
crash improve shake swing

Many English learners tend to make mistake by not putting object after a Transitive verb, mostly because of the influence of their mother tongue. For example when we were asked

In class,

Mr. Faizal: What did you do last night XXX?
Student XXX : I Watched, sir (Saya Menonton, Sir)

This situation sometimes happens in the class, it’s very common to say “Saya menonton” in Indonesia which roughly translated to “I watch”. But in English you’ve got get the object together with the transitive verb.