Transitive verbs

A transitive verb is a verb that requires one or more objects. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects. Transitivity is traditionally thought of as a global property of a clause, by which activity is transferred from an agent to a patient.

Transitive verbs can be classified by the number of objects they require. Verbs that require only two arguments, a subject and a single direct object, are monotransitive. Verbs that require two objects, a direct object and an indirect object, are "ditransitive", or less commonly "bitransitive". An example of a ditransitive verb in English is the verb to give, which may feature a subject, an indirect object, and a direct object: John gave Mary the book.

Verbs that take three objects are "tritransitive". In English a tritransitive verb features an indirect object, a direct object, and a prepositional phrase – as in I'll trade you this bicycle for your binoculars – or else a clause that behaves like an argument – as in I bet you a pound that he has forgotten. Not all descriptive grammars recognize tritransitive verbs.

A clause with a prepositional phrase that expresses a meaning similar to that usually expressed by an object may be called "pseudo-transitive". For example, the Indonesian sentences Dia masuk sekolah ("He attended school") and Dia masuk ke sekolah ("He went into the school") have the same verb (masuk "enter"), but the first sentence has a direct object while the second has a prepositional phrase in its place. A clause with a direct object plus a prepositional phrase may be called "pseudo-ditransitive", as in the Lakhota sentence Haŋpíkčeka kiŋ lená wé-čage ("I made those moccasins for him"). Such constructions are sometimes called "complex transitive". The category of complex transitives includes not only prepositional phrases but also dependent clauses, appositives, and other structures. There is some controversy regarding "complex transitives" and "tritransitives"; linguists do not agree on the nature of the structures.

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