Exercises

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Introduction

Verbs can be used transitively or intransitively.

A Verb is used transitively when it has an object: 

 He fired a shot. 
 She opened her mouth. 

In these cases, fire and open are Transitive Verbs.  (The objects are a shot and her mouth.)

About Objects.

A Verb is used intransitively when it has no object: 

 He fired. 
 Her mouth opened. 

In these cases, fire and open are Intransitive Verbs. 

1. Some verbs are always intransitive

Some verbs are always intransitive, like to snore, to fall. It is impossible to say *He snored a pipe or *She snores her nose. (Note that when you say She snores a lot, a lot is not an object but an Adverbial.  It doesn't represent what the person snores but rather how, how much she snores.) 

2. Some verbs are always transitive.

Some verbs are always transitive, like to recognize, or to merit. It is impossible in English to say *Ah, yes, I recognize or *She certainly does merit. 

3. Some verbs can be used either transitively or intransitively.

A third set of verbs are sometimes transitive, sometimes intransitive, like fire and open in the examples above.

It is this third set of verbs, the ones you can use transitively or intransitively, which can cause problems for the reader of French, because their transitive meaning can be different from their intransitive meaning.

When you looking a verb up in a dictionary, knowing if it is used transitively or intransitively will help you zero in on the right section of an entry. If you verb has an object in the text you are looking at, find the VT (Verb transitive) section of the dictionary entry. If it doesn't have an object, find the VI (Verb intransitive) section.

You come across two sentences with the verb couler:

La rivière coule lentement.

On a coulé le béton ce matin.

When you look up couler in the dictionary, the entry is divided into three sections: 1. VI, 2. VT, 3. VPR Would you look up the meaning of couler as used in the first sentence (La rivière coule lentement.) under 1 or 2?     

What about the second sentence? Is this transitive or intransitive?   

About looking verbs up in the dictionary (including the meaning of VPR).

Exercises