communication

definition of transitive and intransitive sentence

A verb is transitive when it needs a complement to clarify the semantic meaning of the verb. Thus, if I affirm "She gives", it can be seen that something is missing and what is missing is the direct object.

On the other hand, in the sentence "She gives envy", if there is a direct object. Consequently, the verb to give is transitive because it only makes sense if it is accompanied by a direct object.

A verb is intransitive because it does not need a complement to have a complete semantic meaning

Thus, if I say "Juana impresses" the sentence has a complete meaning without the need for a complement to accompany the verb.

It should be noted that a verb is not by nature transitive or intransitive, but depends on how it behaves in the structure of a sentence. Thus, a verb can be transitive on some occasions and intransitive on others.

Transitive and intransitive sentences

Whether a sentence is transitive depends on the verb it contains. Certain verbs necessarily require a direct object. In intransitive sentences the direct object is not needed to have a complete meaning.

In the sentence "Vicente got the victory", the victory acts as a direct complement. On the other hand, if I say "Vicente got" it is a sentence that does not have a complete meaning. Therefore, the first sentence is a transitive sentence.

The following sentences are all transitive, since the verb used in them requires a direct object: "Luis has studied the lesson", "Marisa has broken the pencil" and "Alberto has bought a new book".

In the sentence "My friend impresses the neighbor" the indirect complement to the neighbor makes the sentence intransitive. If I say "Yesterday my boss spoke" it is an equally intransitive sentence. The following sentences are all intransitive, since in no case does a direct complement appear, but they carry other complements: "Miguel de Cervantes died in the 17th century", "My friend lived in Buenos Aires" or "Alfredo hid in math class" .

It should be noted that certain sentences are intransitive even though the verb is transitive and are known as second active sentences (for example, "The neighbor reads", "Lucas is buying" or "Agata goes up quietly").

There are several ways to classify sentences

The distinction between transitive and intransitive sentence is a way of ordering sentences. They can also be divided as follows: bimembre and unimembre, reflexive and reciprocal, active and passive or depending on the intention of the speaker. In the latter case they are divided into enunciative, interrogative, doubtful, imperative, wishful thinking and exclamatory.

Photo: Fotolia - kieferpix

$config[zx-auto] not found$config[zx-overlay] not found