Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Transitive verbs have a direct object, as in "He punched the wall." In this sentence, "wall" is the direct object. The direct object is always a noun that is being acted upon by the subject (in this case, "He").

Intransitive verbs do not have a direct object. Consider the sentence, "He ran quickly." He didn't "run" anything. "Quickly" tells us how he ran, but he didn't "run" an object. Therefore, this usage is intransitive.

Many verbs, including the verb "to run", can be transitive or intransitive depending on how they are used.

In the sentence, "He ran a marathon," there is a direct object: the marathon. Here, the verb "ran" IS transitive, because "marathon" is noun, and the subject is running it. You could also say, "He ran the show", and this would again be a transitive use of the verb.

Determine whether the verbs in the following sentences are transitive or intransitive.