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Recipe

Test whether a verb is transitive or intransitive

Use when: you need to know whether a verb in a sentence takes a direct object -- to find the object, or to choose between lie/lay, sit/set, or rise/raise

Goal: a label for the verb in this sentence (transitive, with its direct object named, or intransitive), decided by the what? test and never by how many words follow the verb

Taught in Transitive, Intransitive, and Objects

Quick recipe

  1. Say the subject and the verb together
  2. Ask the verb "what?" (or "whom?")
  3. Judge this sentence, not the verb in general
  1. 1

    Find the verb and its subject, and say just those two words out loud: the potter glazed, the boiler rattled.

    Why: the test is a question you ask the verb, and it only works once the verb is paired with the subject doing it.

  2. 2

    Put what? or whom? right after the pair: the potter glazed... what?

    Example

    The potter glazed the bowl before noon. Glazed what? The bowl. Transitive, with bowl as the direct object. The boiler rattled twice last winter. Rattled what? Nothing answers: twice and last winter say how often and when. Intransitive.

    • a noun or pronoun answers the question — the verb is transitive, and that answer is its direct object.
    • nothing answers; the words after the verb only say how, when, where, or how often — the verb is intransitive.

    Why: a direct object is the thing the action lands on, and "what?" is exactly the question that finds it. Words that tell how or when answer a different question.

  3. 3

    If the same verb shows up in another sentence, run the test again there. Don't carry a label over from a dictionary or an earlier sentence.

    Example

    The band played a slow ballad. Played what? A ballad: transitive. The band played beautifully. Played what? Nothing: beautifully says how. Intransitive. Same verb, two answers.

    Why: most common verbs are transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another. Only the sentence decides.

Common mistakes

  • Calling a verb intransitive only if it ends the sentence. He arrived late at the station has four words after the verb and still no object.
  • Calling a word that says how or when a direct object. Patiently in She waited patiently answers how, not what.
  • Carrying a label from one sentence to another. Played can be either.
  • Choosing lay where nothing receives the action. Lay needs an object (Lay the packages down); lie takes none (The cat lies in the sun).