Do you know what an intransitive verb is? This intransitive verb will provide you with all of the information you need on intransitive verbs, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more.
Your writing, at its best
Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant
According to Thought Co., there are many different types of verbs in the English language:
Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs
Reporting Verbs
Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs
Performative Verbs
Prepositional Verbs
Causative Verbs
Finite Verbs and Nonfinite Verbs
Iterative Verbs
Mental-State Verbs
Auxiliary Verbs, Helping Verbs, and Lexical Verbs
Dynamic Verbs, Active Verbs, Action Verbs and Stative Verbs
Copular Verbs
Catenative Verbs
Today we will explore intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are verbs that express action but are not followed by a direct object, unlike a transitive verb. Some verbs have both transitive usage and intransitive uses, like eat – to eat, or to eat a cake. There have intransitive usage or transitive depending on the context, complete action, subject complement, characteristics, action of a verb, and other parts of the sentence. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object to receive the action of the verb, but there might be a word or phrase following an intransitive verb, such as words and phrases that answer the question “how?” Some intransitive verbs can have a direct object, but they don’t need one to make sense. Common verbs that are intransitive include:
continue
taste
die
float
talk
grow
burden
appear
lie
exist
agree
listen
happen
arrive
smile
leave
cry
yell
panic
work
sneeze
cough
Intransitive verbs can be used in active voice or passive voice, as a doable activity, with a reflexive pronoun, as phrasal verbs, and more.
Many different languages also contain words that mean intransitive verb. You may notice that some of these translations of intransitive 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 intransitive verb is provided by Word Sense.
Intransitive 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 intransitive verbs that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these intransitive verb examples in the following sentences and see how many you can identify the intransitive verb in, like in the first sentence of the following examples from Your Dictionary and Learn Grammar.
I was lying on the bed when you were having fun in the club.
Joshua lied.
She grew quickly.
It rained.
We slept together feeling the warmth of each other.
We laughed so hard that we could not talk for a few minutes.
We talked all night.
We were young and we ran towards success.
We got up in the morning and prepared ourselves for the tour.
His grandfather coughed during the movie.
Though we could not reach our dreams, we are happy.
It rained a lot.
We stayed in Atlanta for many years.
We talked.
We smiled at each other for encouraging each other.
He appears to like the lesson on foreign language.
Her phone rang.
Joshua lied to me.
You should not lie when someone asks you a serious question.
The water level is rising day by day and it’s alarming.
The car appeared out of nowhere.
My teacher listens.
His grandfather coughed.
The car appeared.
We also sang a few songs though we were not good at it.
My store opened.
The girls sang.
We dreamt of many things together.
My teacher listens to our problems.
She grew.
Then we moved to Chicago for a better life.
The girls sang beautifully.
The river flows furiously in this time of the year.
I could not study last night because of this horrible weather.
We went to many places together.
My store opened last week.
A flock of birds is flying over our heads.
The apartment is 1000 square feet.
The storm is incoming.
Don’t just sit there idly.
We wept together when one of us was in pain.
Her phone rang loudly.
We walked a lot together and we want to do it forever.
The promotion started.
The timer went off at one o’clock.
My shift begins soon.
Overall, an intransitive verb does not require a direct object after it. Some verbs can be both intransitive and transitive depending on the context.
Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.
Kevin
December 12, 2021
Common Questions
