TRANZITIVE, INTRANSITIVE

& COPULATIVE VERBS

Tranzitive verbs

action passes over from the subject to

someone or something
verb followed by an object
a noun (She invited Susan.)
a pronoun (She detests you.)
a numeral (Someone called 94.)

Transitive verbs:
monotransitive verbs- only direct object
He took the notes.

ditransitive verbs - both direct and indirect

object
She told Rachel the truth.

complex-transitive verbs - direct object +

object complement
They declared the festival a great success.

Most common transitive verbs:

allow, ask, bring, charge, envy, find, fine,
forgive, give, grant, hand, leave, lend,
make, offer, order, owe, pay, promise,
read, refuse, reserve, save, send, serve,
show, spare, teach, tell, throw, wish etc.

Examples:

bring Please bring me a glass of water.

buy Do not buy hamburgers at that restaurant
give Our family gives gifts for birthdays.
get My children get good grades in school.
lend Could you please lend me five pounds?
make Did you make coffee this morning?
offer My boss offered me a great job.
owe I owe you ten pounds.
pass All the students passed the test.
pay Don't forget to pay the phone bill.
sing Mary sings songs at karaoke every Sunday.
show My neighbour showed me her garden.
teach Our parents teach us to be kind.

How to know?
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ABLE TO ASK A
QUESTION BEGINNING WITH
'WHAT?'
Examples:
I paid the book yesterday.
( What did you pay?)

She studies English.

(What does she study?)
I owe you ten dollars.
(What do I owe?)

Intransitive verbs
the action does not pass over from the
subject
it is followed by:
an adverb (yesterday)
a prepositional phrase (to the store)

Intransitive verbs
pseudointransitive
( the subject is the recipient of the action)
The shirt washed well.

reciprocal
( intransitive and transitive equivalents)
Lily and Tom married.

reflexive verbs
( transitively and intransitively)
Dolly had dressed and done her hair.

VERBS ALWAYS INTRANSITIVE:

arrive, go, lie,

sneeze, sit, die

Examples:
The sound of the choir carried
through the cathedral.
The verb "carried: intransitively, takes no direct object.
The prepositional phrase "through the cathedral" acts as
an adverb describing where the sound is carried.

The train from Montreal arrived four hours late.

The intransitive verb "arrived: takes no direct object, and
the noun phrase "four hours late" acts as an adverb
describing when the train arrived.

We lingered in the restaurant for several hours.

The verb "lingered" is used intransitively and takes no
direct object. The prepositional phrase "in the restaurant
for several hours" acts as an adverb modifying
"lingered.

The painting was hung on the south wall of the

reception room.
The verb "was hung" is used intransitively and the
sentence has no direct object. The prepositional phrase
"on the south wall of the reception room" acts as an
adverb describing where the paint hung.

How to know when it is an intransitive verb?

1 The subject did something WHERE?
If Charlie had run into the street, he would have been injured.
In 1973 the number inched upward.
2 The subject did something WHEN?
Thousand of cranes will return in the spring.
The number climbed in 1974 and in 1975.
He died near the end of century.
The company's leader collapsed during the meeting.
3 The subject did something HOW AND TO WHAT DEGREE?
The statistics came in any form you like.
The public is complaining loudly.
She worked with care and precision.
4 The subject did something WHY?
Our elected official listen because we vote.
Diana's grade improved with the help of a tutor.
Elise competed for her family.

transitive
The audience attentively watched the latest production of The Trojan Women.
The verb "watch" is used transitively and takes the noun phrase "the latest production of The Trojan
Women" as a direct object .

intransitive
The cook watched while the new dishwasher surreptitiously picked up
the fragments of the broken dish.
The verb "watched" is used intransitively and takes no direct object.

intransitive
The crowd moves across the field in an attempt to see the rock star
get into her helicopter.
The verb "moves" is used as an intransitive verb and takes no direct object.

transitive
Every spring, William moves all boxes and trunks from
one side of the attic to the other.
The verb "moves" is used as a transitive verb and takes the noun phrase "all the boxes and trunk"
as a direct object.

Copulative verbs (= linking verbs)

denoting a state of being or condition for
the subject, not action.
followed by
a noun,
pronoun, or
adjective in a sentence.
not followed by adverbs

Copulative verbs dont just do something; they sit there

and be. And because they express being rather than
doing, they are unique among verbs in that they are
modified by adjectives, not adverbs.
Examples:
The test indicates that Sara is a genius.
Toni Morrison was the first African-American woman to
win the Nobel Peace Award.
Roads were a slushy mess.
It was a sad day.
She seemed nervous.

True linking verbs:

any form of the verb:
BE [AM, IS, ARE, WAS, WERE, HAS BEEN, ARE
BEING, MIGHT HAVE BEEN, ETC.],
BECOME,
SEEM.

These linking verbs are

always linking verbs.

A list of verbs with multiple personalities:

appear, become, feel, get, go,
grow, happen, keep, look, prove,
remain, seem, sit, smell, sound,
taste, turn, turn out.
Sometimes these verbs are copulative
verbs; sometimes they are action verbs.

Examples (copulative)

act: "Tom acted suspicious."

appear: "Tom appears satisfied, but really is not."
be: "Tom is a coward."
become: "Tom became wealthy."
come: "The prediction came true;" "the belt came loose;" "the characters in the story come alive"
come out: "It came out burnt."
end up: "I ended up broke;" "the room ended up a mess."
get: "Tom got angry."
go: "The man went crazy;" "Tom went bald;" "the food went bad;" "the mistake went unnoticed"
grow: "Tom grew insistent."
fall: "Tom fell ill with the flu."
feel: "Tom felt nauseated."
keep: Tom kept quiet."
leave: "They left happy."
look: "Tom looks upset."
prove: "Tom's behavior proves difficult to understand."
remain: "Tom remained unsatisfied."
seem: "Tom seems happy."
smell: "Tom smelled sweet"
sound: "Tom sounded obnoxious."
stay: "Tom stayed happy."
taste: "The food tastes fresh."
turn: "Tom turned angry."
turn up: "The prime minister turned up missing."

How to prove copulative verbs?

If you can substitute am, is, or are and the
sentence still sounds logical, you have a
linking verb.
If, after the substitution, the sentence
makes no sense, you are dealing with
an action verb instead.

Examples:
Sylvia tasted the spicy stew.
Sylvia is the stew? No. Sylvia tasted = action verb Sylvia
is doing.

The squid stew tasted good.

The stew is good? Yes. The stew is good a copulative verb

I smell the delicious aroma of a mushroom pizza.

I am the aroma? No! I smell an action verb, something I
am doing

The mushroom pizza smells heavenly.

The pizza is heavenly? Yes. Pizza smells a copulative verb

Many verbs can be transitive, intransitive or

linking verbs depending on their function:
The judge turned the page quickly. (Vtr)
The lawyer turned suddenly towards
the courtroom. (Vintr)
The nation turned sour. (linking verb)

Finite, non-finite
auxiliary verbs

Finite verb:

forms of a verb that has a subject

carries tense
functions as the root of an independent clause
stands alone as a complete sentence
just one finite verb per clause
They worked hard for two days.
He was believed to have been told to have himself examined.

Most types of verbs appear in finite or non finite form.

Finite verbs show inflection of the

following grammatical categories:

gender: masculine or feminine

person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
number: singular or plural
tense: present, past, future
aspect: perfect, progressive
mood: indicative, subjunctive, imperative,
voice: active or passive
English a synthetic language expresses
these categories with the help of auxiliary verbs

How to recognize finite forms?

1. they take an -s at the end of the word (indicate present ) third-person
singular:
She walks.
2. take an -ed or a -d at the end of the word to indicate past:
I walked.
3. finite verbs usually follow their subjects:
He coughs.
The documents had compromised him.
4. if an ordinary sentence contains just one verb, this verb will be finite.
This is an apple.
5. in a verb chain, the first verb in the chain is almost always finite,
and the other verbs are always non-finite.
They have [finite] looked [non-finite] at it.
6. finite verbs are often groups of words that include auxiliary verbs like can,
must, have, be:
Example: He can be walking

Non-finite verb forms:

PARTICIPLE, INFITIVE, GERUND
1 Participles
There are three types:
Present Participle
Past Participle
Perfect Participle

Participles have active and passive form

Present P.
asking
Past P.
Perfect P. having asked

being asked
asked
having been asked

Present participle (formed by adding ing to a verb)

1 with the auxiliary verb to be to form continuous tenses
She is talking on the phone.
They were studying the whole afternoon.
2 as an adjective
This is an interesting book.
An astounding number of men stay bachelors
A charming house on the river bank
I love this noise of falling rain.
I dont like screaming children.
3 as an adverb
She ran laughing out of the room.
They went out screaming.
4 instead of a relative clause
Who is the fat man sitting in the corner?
(shortened from who is sitting')
Anyone touching that wire, will get a chock.
(shortened from 'who will touch)
There is a woman crying her eyes.
(shortened from who is crying)

Present Participle (cont.)

5 after verbs of sensation (feel, hear, listen, notice, see, watch,

observe, smell) V + N/Pron + Present Participle
I saw a small girl standing in the pond.
She heard me reading aloud my vocabulary.
Liz felt something touching her on the back
Tim smelt something burning.
6 in a certain number of set phrases
Generally speaking, men can run faster than women.
Considering everything, it wasn't a bad holiday.
7 succession of events
After finishing her work, she went home.
After scanning the article, she was able to answer the questions.
After talking to you I always feel better.

Past Participle (formed by adding the suffix ed regular verbs;

irregular - different forms)

1 with the auxiliary verb have to form perfect

tenses or passive verb form
The have sent us a message.
You will be given a parcel.

2 as an adjective
The window is still broken.
The house looked abandoned.
Her heart is broken.

3 after nouns (pronouns) to reduced relative

clauses
I got the only ticket left.
Most of the people invited were old friends.
Those selected will begin training on Monday.

Infinitives (formed by to + verb form)

1 functions a subject
To wait seemed foolish.
2 functions as a direct object
We intended to leave early.
Everyone wanted to go.
3 as a subject complement
His ambition is to fly.
4 as an adjective
He lacked the strength to resist.

Perfect Participle (having + Past Participle)

Used to express the activity that precedes
another activity in the past.
Having found a hotel, we looked for a restaurant.
Having finished her work, she went home.
Having lost all of my money, I went home.
After having annoyed everybody he went home.
Having failed my exams, I took up teaching.

Gerund (adding the suffix ing)

1 subject of a sentence
Sneezing exhausts Steve.
Reading is his favorite pastime.
Traveling might satisfy your desire for new experience.
Being the boss made Jeff feel uneasy.
2 direct object
They like swimming.
We do not appreciate her singing.
3 predicative (subject complement)
Her hobby is shopping.
My favorite activity is sleeping.
Valerie hates cooking.