intransitive verb

linguistics

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June 29, 2026

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An intransitive verb is a verb that does not require a direct object to complete its meaning. Unlike transitive verbs, which take a direct object that receives the action (answering "what?" or "whom?"), intransitive verbs are followed by adverbs or prepositional phrases that answer questions like "where?", "when?", "how?", or "how long?". For example, in the sentence "Her car died suddenly last week," the verb "died" is intransitive because "suddenly last week" answers "when?" and "how?" rather than "what?" or "whom?". Some verbs can function as both transitive and intransitive depending on the sentence structure. The state of being intransitive is called intransitivity.123

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ergativity
…subject, or agent, of an intransitive verb with the object, or patient, of a transitive verb. This contrasts with the situation in nominative-accusative languages such as Latin or English, in which the subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs are paired grammatically and distinguished from the object of a transitive…
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…subject, or agent, of an intransitive verb with the object, or patient, of a transitive verb. This contrasts with the situation in nominative-accusative languages such as Latin or English, in which the subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs are paired grammatically and distinguished from the object of a transitive…
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linguistics
Syntax
…traditional distinction between transitive and intransitive verb forms. It may be decided, then, that “lost,” “stole,” “ate” and so forth belong to one class, C (the class to which “enjoyed” belongs), when they occur “transitively” (i.e., with a following member of B as their object) but to a different class,…
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…traditional distinction between transitive and intransitive verb forms. It may be decided, then, that “lost,” “stole,” “ate” and so forth belong to one class, C (the class to which “enjoyed” belongs), when they occur “transitively” (i.e., with a following member of B as their object) but to a different class,…
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