What is a transitive verb?
A transitive verb contrasts with an intransitive verb, which is a verb that does not take a direct object. In other words, it is not done to someone or something. It only involves the subject. In the examples below, the transitive verb is highlighted and the direct object (i.e., the thing being acted upon) is in bold. Lee eats pies.
What is a transitive verb for sleep?
A transitive verb describes an action that involves direct interaction between two objects, John slept all night. In the sentence, slept is the verb and all night is the direct object of that verb—it gives us more information about what happened to John during the sleeping process—and no other information about that action is necessary.
What does Leer mean in Spanish?
Leer is a very common verb in Spanish and you will run into it quite often. The good news is that its meaning is actually quite simple for English speakers, as it is used much in the way that ” to read ” is. I read the newspaper every day. When it comes to its conjugations, though, leer gets a bit more complicated.
Why should I care about transitive and intransitive verbs?
Understanding the terms transitive and intransitive is useful for discussing verbs, direct objects, and indirect objects when learning foreign languages, and that’s probably the best reason to care about them. (Point 2) Avoid mistakes with to win and to learn.
If a verb is considered a transitive verb, that means it can be used with a direct object. In English, a direct object is “a word or group of words representing the person or thing upon which the action of a verb is performed or toward which it is directed.” Take a look at the following sentence:
What are intransitive verbs?
Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not take an object and do not have an action that is performed upon someone or something else. An intransitive verb is a verb that doesn’t need another noun or pronoun in the sentence to tell us who did it or what it was done to. He walked home tells us that he did something and it also tells us what he did.
Why are transitive verbs used in passive voice?
Why is that? This brings us to the second thing mentioned in our earlier definition of transitive verbs. A transitive verb can be used in the passive voice. When we write sentences or clauses in the passive voice, the subject is having an action performed to it rather than performing an action.