Episode 102 - Transitive and Intransitive Verb

Learn Japanese with Masa sensei!

- Check my video for more details! -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxVjhLxElf8&t=244s

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Transitive Verb : A verb that takes a direct object

Intransitive Verb : A verb that does not take a direct object

Transitive Verbs:

飲む To Drink

読む To Read

食べる To Eat

買う To Buy

作る To Make

Intransitive Verbs:

行く To Go

働く To Work

生きる To Live

泣く To Cry

泳ぐ To Swim

Transitive

私はドアを開（あ）けました。

In the first sentence, we know from the particle を that there is a direct object. So when we ask the question, "What is being opened?" The answer is ドア (the door). From your studies of the particle を, you probably already know this particle always comes after a direct object. It's telling us what we are doing the verb to. Hopefully this sounds familiar, because this is exactly how we defined transitive verbs!

Intransitive

ドアが開（あ）きました。

In this second sentence, the only particle is が, which marks the subject as new or important information. This makes ドア the subject. The subject does the verb 開きました. The door opened. The door is doing the verb, but the verb is not acting upon anything.

◆Transitive Verbs and Intransitive pairs◆

落とします to drop 落ちます to fall

出 to take out 出ます to come out; to leave

入れます to insert 入ります to enter

開けます to open 開きます to be opened

閉めます to close 閉まります to be closed

つけます to attach つきます to be attached

消します to erase 消えます to disappear

抜きます to extract 抜けます to be extracted

Although it's not always the case, you can use the following general guidelines to tell the differences...

1. 　Most of the time transitive verbs end with an "eru" or "su" sound, like for example, あける (akeru) and けす (kesu).

2.　Intransitive verbs oftenly end with an "aru" or "ku" sound. But sometimes they also end with an "eru" sound. For example, とまる (tomaru), あく (aku) and でる (deru).

However there are always exceptions in Japanese, so it's not always true for the above guidelines. Therefore the best way is still to memorize them.

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