{"id":187,"date":"2017-10-16T12:52:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T16:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/?p=187"},"modified":"2022-02-19T19:31:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T00:31:05","slug":"transitive-and-intransitive-verbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/grammar\/in-transitive","title":{"rendered":"Transitive and Intransitive Verbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Japanese, sometimes there are two types of the same verb often referred to as transitive<\/i> and intransitive verbs<\/i>. 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\u3000\u300c\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb<\/span>\u304c\u843d\u3061\u305f<\/em><\/span>\u300d vs \u300c\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb<\/span>\u3092\u843d\u3068\u3057\u305f<\/em><\/span>\u300d.\u3000Sometimes, the verbs changes when translated into English such as “To put it in the box” (\u7bb1<\/span>\u306b\u5165\u308c\u308b<\/span>\uff09 vs “To enter the box” \uff08\u7bb1<\/span>\u306b\u5165\u308b<\/span>\uff09 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs<\/caption>\n
Transitive<\/th>\nIntransitive<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u843d\u3068\u3059<\/span><\/td>\nto drop<\/td>\n\u843d\u3061\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto fall<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u51fa\u3059<\/span><\/td>\nto take out<\/td>\n\u51fa\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto come out; to leave<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u5165\u308c\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto insert<\/td>\n\u5165\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto enter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u958b\u3051\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto open<\/td>\n\u958b\u304f<\/span><\/td>\nto be opened<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u9589\u3081\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto close<\/td>\n\u9589\u307e\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto be closed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u3064\u3051\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto attach<\/td>\n\u3064\u304f<\/span><\/td>\nto be attached<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u6d88\u3059<\/span><\/td>\nto erase<\/td>\n\u6d88\u3048\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto disappear<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u629c\u304f<\/span><\/td>\nto extract<\/td>\n\u629c\u3051\u308b<\/span><\/td>\nto be extracted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Pay attention to particles!<\/h2>\n

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. If you’re not sure, you can always check whether a verb is transitive or intransitive by using an online dictionary such as jisho.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Examples<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \u79c1<\/span>\u304c\u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u3092<\/em>\u3064\u3051\u305f<\/span>\u3002
    \nI am the one that turned on the lights.<\/li>\n
  2. \u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u304c<\/em>\u3064\u3044\u305f<\/span>\u3002
    \nThe lights turned on.<\/li>\n
  3. \u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u3092<\/em>\u6d88\u3059<\/span>\u3002
    \nTurn off the lights.<\/li>\n
  4. \u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u304c<\/em>\u6d88\u3048\u308b<\/span>\u3002
    \nLights turn off.<\/li>\n
  5. \u8ab0<\/span>\u304c\u7a93<\/span>\u3092<\/em>\u958b\u3051\u305f<\/span>\uff1f
    \nWho opened the window?<\/li>\n
  6. \u7a93<\/span>\u304c<\/em>\u3069\u3046\u3057\u3066<\/span>\u958b\u3044\u305f<\/span>\uff1f
    \nWhy has the window opened?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The important thing to remember is that intransitive verbs cannot<\/i> have a direct object because there is no direct acting agent. The following sentences are grammatically incorrect.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u3092<\/span><\/em>\u3064\u3044\u305f<\/span>\u3002
      \n\uff08\u300c\u3092\u300d should be replaced with \u300c\u304c\u300d or \u300c\u306f\u300d\uff09<\/li>\n
    2. \u96fb\u6c17<\/span>\u3092<\/span><\/em>\u6d88\u3048\u308b<\/span>\u3002
      \n\uff08\u300c\u3092\u300d should be replaced with \u300c\u304c\u300d or \u300c\u306f\u300d\uff09<\/li>\n
    3. \u3069\u3046\u3057\u3066<\/span>\u7a93<\/span>\u3092<\/span><\/em>\u958b\u3044\u305f<\/span>\uff1f
      \n\uff08\u300c\u3092\u300d should be replaced with \u300c\u304c\u300d or \u300c\u306f\u300d\uff09<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The only time you can use the \u300c\u3092\u300d particle for intransitive verbs is when a location is the direct object of a motion verb as briefly described in the previous section.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \u90e8\u5c4b<\/span>\u3092<\/em>\u51fa\u305f<\/span>\u3002
        \nI left room.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        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 … <\/p>\n

        Continue reading “Transitive and Intransitive Verbs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"series":[4],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basic-grammar","series-grammar-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1731,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/1731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetojapanese.org\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}