Verbs express action or state of being. They can be transitive, requiring a direct object, or intransitive. Transitive verbs can also accept indirect objects. Verbs can evolve culturally and their transitivity can change depending on their meaning or usage.
All languages of the world use verbs to express an action or state of being. The latter is a small set of words, including derivations of the verb “to be” such as: is, was and were. One way to classify the wide variety of physical or mental action words is as transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb, quite simply, requires a direct object, a noun on which the action applies.
With a few exceptions, such as one-word exclamations, nearly all grammatically valid sentences in a given language contain a direct subject and a predicate verb. The full sentence, “She is happy,” uses a linking verb to tie the subject pronoun to its descriptive adjective. There are no other nouns, so the verb “is” must be an intransitive verb. The same goes for the verb in “She died yesterday.”
The word transitive comes from the Latin words for “to pass through.” The transitive verb is a causal relationship bridge. A sentence with such a verb is incomplete unless it contains a principal agent and a secondary recipient of the action represented by the verb. The latter is referred to as the direct object of the verb.
In the example, “He faced death bravely,” the verb is transitive. “Death” is the direct object, the recipient name of his action. The omission of this word results in a sentence that makes little sense. Verbs that can accept only one direct object are called monotransitive.
All languages, but English in particular, transform and evolve culturally. Especially verbs are constantly acquiring new meanings. While many verbs are transitive or not, there are just as many whose transitivity can be or, depending on their specific meaning or usage. The example in the previous paragraph can be used as an intransitive verb, as in “She faces forward, each new day that passes.” Such verbs are called ambitransitive.
In addition to the direct object, a transitive verb can also accept an indirect object, a noun that is the recipient of the direct object. In almost all cases, it refers to who or for whom the action is directed. In English grammar, the indirect object always precedes the direct object in word order. The sentence structure of “She gave me joy” is: direct subject – transitive verb – indirect object – direct object. Other examples of so-called ditransitive verbs include the words get, read, send and show.
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