Transitive or Intransitive?

As I said before, Action Verbs come in two flavors: Transitive and Intransitive.

Those are some big words, so let's break them down, easy part first.

You may already know that the prefix "in" means NOT. Incorrect (wrong), informal (casual), infrequent (rare) and inappropriate (you know that one, right?) are all words that use the prefix "in" to create an antonym of the original word. "Intransitive" does the same thing; it just means "not transitive." That definition only works, though, if you already know what transitive means. Let's explore that next.

We'll start with the Latin word trans. "Trans" means across or through. It's the root of transitive, along with lots of other words that you use all the time. Transportation, transcontinental, transformation, and transfer are just a few of the common English words that begin with the trans root. When you look at just those four examples, it's already clear that TRANS words often involve moving, carrying, or changing. For example, when you transfer to another school, you've actually changed schools, or moved from one school to another.

Once you've thought about that root, it's very logical that a TRANSITIVE verb is one that transfers action from the subject to the direct object.

Here's an example:

"Kicked" is nearly always a TRANSITIVE verb because most of the time we want to know what (or who) got kicked.

BTW, the thing that gets acted upon by a transitive verb is called the DIRECT OBJECT. (<-- Click there to learn more)

When the action is INTRANSITIVE, the subject hasn't had an impact on anything or anyone else.

For the record, here are the definitions I'll expect you to know:

{Pssst...If a quick review of Direct Objects would be helpful, please click here.}