Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
In Japanese, sometimes there are two types of the same verb often referred to as transitive and intransitive verbs. The difference between the two is that one verb is an action done by an active agent while the other is something that occurs without a direct agent. In English, this is sometimes expressed with the same verb, such as: "The ball dropped" vs "I dropped the ball" but in Japanese it becomes 「ボールが落ちた」 vs 「ボールを落とした」. Sometimes, the verbs changes when translated into English such as "To put it in the box" (箱に入れる） vs "To enter the box" （箱に入る） but this is only from the differences in the languages. If you think in Japanese, intransitive and transitive verbs have the same meaning except that one indicates that someone had a direct hand in the action (direct object) while the other does not. While knowing the terminology is not important, it is important to know which is which in order to use the correct particle for the correct verb.
Since the basic meaning and the kanji is the same, you can learn two verbs for the price of just one kanji! Let's look at a sample list of intransitive and transitive verbs.
| Transitive | Intransitive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 落とす | to drop | 落ちる | to fall |
| 出す | to take out | 出る | to come out; to leave |
| 入れる | to insert | 入る | to enter |
| 開ける | to open | 開く | to be opened |
| 閉める | to close | 閉まる | to be closed |
| つける | to attach | つく | to be attached |
| 消す | to erase | 消える | to disappear |
| 抜く | to extract | 抜ける | to be extracted |
Pay attention to particles!
The important lesson to take away here is to learn how to use the correct particle for the correct type of verb. It might be difficult at first to grasp which is which when learning new verbs or whether there even is a transitive/intransitive distinction. The good news is that the WWWJDIC now indicates whether a verb is transitive (vt) or intransitive (vi) when the distinction applies. However, I have not tested how extensive the coverage is so I recommend looking at examples sentences from either the WWWJDIC or Yahoo!辞書. For example, looking at example sentences for 「つける」 from the WWWJDIC or Yahoo!辞書, you can see that it is a transitive verb from the use of the 「を」 particle.
Examples
（１） 私が電気をつけた。- I am the one that turned on the lights.
（２） 電気がついた。- The lights turned on.
（３） 電気を消す。- Turn off the lights.
（４） 電気が消える。- Lights turn off.
（５） 誰が窓を開けた？- Who opened the window?
（６） 窓がどうして開いた？- Why has the window opened?
The important thing to remember is that intransitive verbs cannot have a direct object because there is no direct acting agent. The following sentences are grammatically incorrect.
（誤） 電気をついた。- （「を」 should be replaced with 「が」 or 「は」）
（誤） 電気を消える。- （「を」 should be replaced with 「が」 or 「は」）
（誤） どうして窓を開いた？- （「を」 should be replaced with 「が」 or 「は」）
The only time you can use the 「を」 particle for intransitive verbs is when a location is the direct object of a motion verb as briefly described in the previous section.
（１） 部屋を出た。- I left room.
This is the best place in the
This is the best place in the whole internet where we can learn japanese grammar in a simple but complete way.
Without knowing it I noticed that thanks to this site i've been learning much more kanji than I expected in a very easy way.
Thanks :D
http://jisho.org/ I
http://jisho.org/
I particularly find this dictionary better for looking up words. It has sentence examples, tells you whether the verd is transitive or intransitive and other usefull stuff.
I also use this website for looking up stroke order for kanji.
http://www.mahou.org/Kanji/
Hope it helps someone, I've found them both to be more useful (to me) than the WWWJDIC.
The guide has been really useful thanks Tae Kim.
---I may be wrong ...but When
---I may be wrong ...but When you say:
"If you think in Japanese, intransitive and transitive verbs have the same meaning except that one indicates that someone had a direct hand in the action (direct object) while the other does not."
---You are saying about Passive voice & active voice, like:"I dropped the ball" is the active voice, because I DID the action, and "The ball WAS dropped"=Passive voice, because the Subject(Ball) suffered the action(by someone) in this case, by me.
---Transitive and Intransitive Verbs is about the need of the verb in have complement after the verb to the phrase have sense.
---"I cry" is a complete sentence. therefore it's a intrasitive (IN means Negation) because the verb doesnt need to "move"(Transitive comes from "Movement" in Latin) to have a complete sentence. In the phrase "I go to Japan" the verb to go need the complement "...go TO SOMEWHERE" to have a complete meaning, it needs this movement,complement(transitive).
---If you say to a stranger in the middle of the street: "I go"
he will probably ask"To where??"Because He doesnt Know what about you are talking(and doesnt have to Know...)
Actually "transire" in Latin
Actually "transire" in Latin means "to pass over". Intransitive is from the Latin meaning "not passing over", and refers to the verb not acting on ("passing over to") a direct object.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_verb and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitive_verb for explanations which relate the passive and active voice of some languages.
-Blahah
your example for つける above is
your example for つける above is a bit confusing to me. When you say '私が電気をつけた' you do mean 点ける (to turn on), correct? I'm just wondering if you're lumping all the つける words together since they do have similar meaning even if they have differenct kanji.
If you look 点ける up on
If you look 点ける up on WWWJDIC, you would notice it has 'uk' tag, which stands for 'usually kana' and indicates words that have kanji for them but are usually written in kana. Both variations are correct but Japanese people usually write it as つける. That's why he also writes it in kana.
When つける means 'turn on,' I
When つける means 'turn on,' I almost always see it written in kana rather than as 点ける. Tae Kim is pretty much keeping in line with popular usage.
Are you korean? i was just
Are you korean? i was just wondering because of your name.
I am Korean
I am Korean
haha i just wanted to ask not
haha i just wanted to ask not because it matters but I wasn't sure how to pronounce your name. Either the Japanese way as たえ or korean as 태 (teh)(i'm learning both Japanese and Korean) or maybe some other way since I had never heard the name Tae. Thanks.
So?
So?
I wasnt sure how to pronounce
I wasnt sure how to pronounce his name. In korean it would be Teh and japanese Tah-eh (both Tae). I wanted to clarify.
no, he is just AWESOME
no, he is just AWESOME PERSONIFIED. YEAAAAAAhhhH
lol how true. this is easily
lol how true. this is easily one of the best Japanese grammar sites I've ever used. :)
So there are no rules for
So there are no rules for changing verb forms between trans and intransitive? You have to memorize pairs of words that mean nearly the same thing but are spelled differently?
I believe you can't call
I believe you can't call these rules but there are patterns or whatever you may call 'em. That is, if a verb ends in a certain way, its counterpart is most likely to end in another way or in one of two possible ways. (Sorry for bad English but hopefully you get the idea)
Keep in mind that often you can't determine the (in)transitive counterpart by these and should always look it up on a dictionary but it's a fact that this guideline makes it easier to remember them than plainly memorize this stuff by heart. You can also make lists of what verbs go for which rule and which don't go for any of them and if you review them regularly you should have no troubles with them.
Here they go, int/tr, keep in mind that ~aru doesn't mean ある but any syllable ending in a + る and so on:
~aru/~eru, e.g. 助かる/助ける、決まる/決める etc (note that the ~eru one is always a ru-verb aka 一段）
~u/~eru, e.g. 届く/届ける、つづく/つづける etc
~ru/~su, e.g. 帰る/帰す、残る/残す etc
~reru/~su, e.g. 壊れる/壊す、汚れる/汚す etc
I'm a learner though, please correct me if I lied somewhere
Your explanation of the
Your explanation of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs was confusing to me. The way I describe them is that transitive verbs have an object (something that the verb is done to). For example, 'I kick the ball'. The kicking is done to the ball. Therefore 'kick' is a transitive verb. On the other hand, intransitive verbs are not done to anything. The subject just does them. For example, 'I sleep'. The sleeping is not done to anything. I just do it. 'Sleep' is therefore intransitive.
I agree with the comment.
I agree with the comment. 'Transitive' actually means that the action goes from the 'subject' through to the 'object' (from latin: trans-ire, lit. 'to go through'). That is, the action starts from the subject of the sentence and affects the direct object.
'Intransitive' (again from latin, the suffix 'in' means negation) on the other hand means that the 'action' does not 'go through'. It 'stays' with the subject, or affects the subject only.
I guess in english it may not be so clear because there are verbs that, as shown in the example of the ball, have both a transitive and intransitive meaning or use. In my native language (italian) there are a lot less of such examples, like 'decollare', which can mean both 'take off' (an airplane takes off from the airport) and 'take (the head) off' (lit. 'remove (de) from the neck (collo) action (are)' - french revolution anyone?).
We also have a verb form called 'reflexive' which serves to describe actions in which both subject and object are the same. For example, from an italian point of view, the verb 'to open' can be used both in a transitive way (I opened the window) and a reflexive way ('the window opened').
This sometimes helps me in understanding some japanese transitive/intransitive differences. I am still a basic japanese student, so I apologize for any incorrect remarks.
Lorenzo a.k.a. Chinnico
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