Transitive Verb: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what a transitive verb is? This transitive verb will provide you with all of the information you need on transitive verbs, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is a transitive verb?

According to Thought Co., there are many different types of verbs in the English language:

  •  Dynamic Verbs, Active Verbs, Action Verbs and Stative Verbs
  •  Catenative Verbs
  •  Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs
  •  Regular Verbs  and Irregular Verbs
  •  Reporting Verbs
  •  Mental-State Verbs
  •  Copular Verbs
  •  Performative Verbs 
  •  Finite Verbs and Nonfinite Verbs
  •  Auxiliary Verbs, Helping Verbs, and Lexical Verbs
  •  Prepositional Verbs
  •  Iterative Verbs
  •  Causative Verbs

Today, we will be exploring the types of transitive verbs, like a type of action verb or transitive phrasal verb. According to Your Dictionary, transitive verbs are verbs that express action and are followed by a direct object. Intransitive verbs do not require an object. These are followed by prepositional phrases or an adverb. Common verbs that are transitive might be hit, buy, or eat. You cannot simply “hit,” you must hit something. There is some controversy regarding complex transitives, monotransitive verbs, ditransitive verbs, and tritransitives. Some verbs have both transitive and intransitive uses. 

Many different languages also contain words that mean transitive verb. You may notice that some of these translations of transitive verb look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of transitive verb is provided by Word Sense

  •  Macedonian: преоден глагол‎
  •  Armenian: անցողական բայ‎
  •  Finnish: transitiivinen verbi‎, transitiiviverbi‎
  •  Spanish: verbo transitivo‎ (masc.)
  •  Maori: kupumahi whiti‎, tūmahi whiti‎
  •  Norman: vèrbe transitif‎ (masc.)
  •  Japanese: 他動詞‎ (たどうし, tadōshi)
  •  Thai: สกรรมกริยา‎
  •  Hungarian: tárgyas ige‎
  •  Ukrainian: перехідне́ дієсло́во‎
  •  Persian: فعل متعدی‎ (fe’le mota’addi)
  •  Portuguese: verbo transitivo‎
  •  Icelandic: áhrifssögn‎ (fem.)
  •  Bulgarian: пре́хо́ден глаго́л‎ (masc.)
  •  Roman: prelazni glagol‎ (masc.), prijelazni glagol‎ (masc.)
  •  Russian: перехо́дный глаго́л‎ (masc.)
  •  Polish: czasownik przechodni‎ (m-in)
  •  Latvian: pārejošs darbības vārds‎ (masc.), transitīvs verbs‎ (masc.)
  •  Novial: transitiv verbe‎
  •  Swedish: transitivt verb‎ (neut.)
  •  Tagalog: pandiwang palipat‎
  •  Dutch: overgankelijk werkwoord‎ (neut.), transitief werkwoord‎ (neut.)
  •  Greek: μεταβατικό ρήμα‎ (neut.)
  •  Mandarin: 及物動詞‎, 及物动词‎ (jíwù dòngcí), 他動詞‎, 他动词‎ (tādòngcí)
  •  Turkish: geçişli fiil‎, geçişli eylem‎
  •  Korean: 타동사‎ (他動詞‎)
  •  German: transitives Verb‎ (neut.), transitives Verbum‎, Transitivverb‎, Transitivum‎, Transitiv‎
  •  Romanian: verb tranzitiv‎ (neut.)
  •  Esperanto: transitiva verbo‎
  •  Volapük: värb loveädik‎
  •  Arabic: (indefinite) فِعْل مُتَعَدٍّ‎ (masc.)
  •  Cyrillic: прелазни глагол‎ (masc.), пријелазни глагол‎ (masc.)
  •  French: verbe transitif‎ (masc.)

What are examples of transitive verbs?

Transitive verbs can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of transitive verbs that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use.  Take a look at these transitive verb examples in the following sentences and see how many you can identify the transitive verb in, like in the first sentence of the following examples!

  •  Mom ate the tart for her birthday. 
  •  She learned a foreign language in high school.
  •  Alex and Alicia emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the dishes before going to the movies.
  •  We went to the zoo and the movies last weekend. 
  •  Grandma pulled the trigger on the water gun.
  •  We eat pizza on Fridays.

What are other grammar terms?

There are many grammatical devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  • reflexive
  •  superlative
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  plural
  •  appositive
  •  indirect passive
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  number
  •  verbal noun
  •  demonstrative
  •  base form
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  direct question
  •  nominative
  •  protasis
  •  relative
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  first person
  •  predicate
  •  predicative
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  apposition
  •  prefix
  •  agree | agreement
  •  transitive
  •  indirect object
  •  article
  •  causative
  •  indicative
  •  prepositional object
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  part of speech
  •  objective
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  attributive
  •  parasynthetic
  •  gender
  •  past participle
  •  vocative
  •  double object
  •  morpheme
  •  subjective
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  accusative
  •  zero
  •  head
  •  comparative
  •  tense
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  phrasal verb
  •  subject
  •  dual
  •  to-infinitive
  •  masculine
  •  antecedent
  •  third-person
  •  main verb
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  filler
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  construction
  •  bare infinitive
  •  definite article
  •  direct speech
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  progressive
  •  positive
  •  pro-form
  •  passive
  •  case
  •  similative
  •  active
  •  complementary
  •  element
  •  feminine
  •  prepositional passive
  •  passive infinitive
  •  dative
  •  singular
  •  interjection
  •  adjective
  •  suffix
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  optative
  •  gerund
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  collective noun
  •  cataphoric
  •  genitive
  •  second person
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  verb (v.)
  •  indirect speech
  •  declarative
  •  person
  •  interrogative
  •  present participle
  •  complement
  •  special use
  •  subjunctive
  •  agent noun
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  mass noun
  •  participial adjective
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  anticipatory
  •  instrumental
  •  anaphoric
  •  infinitive
  •  intransitive
  •  present tense
  •  subordinate clause
  •  main clause
  •  non-finite
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  abstract
  •  perfect
  •  combination
  •  simple
  •  modify | modifier
  •  noun (n.)
  •  determiner
  •  concrete
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  stem
  •  common noun
  •  mood
  •  direct object
  •  possessive adjective
  •  possessive
  •  compound | compounding
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •  indefinite
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  non-referential
  •  indirect question
  •  cognate object
  •  locative
  •  that-clause
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  personal pronoun
  •  noun phrase
  •  quasi-
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  finite
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  past tense
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  neuter
  •  conditional
  •  count noun
  •  clause
  •  intensifier
  •  imperative (imper.)

Overall, a transitive verb is a verb that performs an action on a direct object. Intransitive verbs on the other hand do not require a direct object, nor should they have one.

Sources:

  1. Types of Verb Forms and Functions in English | Thought Co 
  2. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  3. transitive verb: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense