Kinds of Verbs

What is a Verb?

A Verb is that part of a speech which is used to indicate the state of being. It tells what something does or that something exists.

Action verb such as dance, eat, jump etc. expresses action. Most of the action verbs are categorized as transitive or intransitive.

Transitive Verb

Read the sentence.

The man killed.

What did the man kill?

In the above sentence the Verb alone do not give complete sense. Something must be added to complete the sense.

Let’s read this sentence.

The man killed a snake.

Now this sentence has complete sense. The word “snake” is called the Object of the Verb “killed”. In the above sentence, the direct object “snake” received the action of the verb “killed”.

A Verb which requires an object after it to complete its sense called a Transitive Verb. The meaning of a sentence with a transitive verb is not complete without a direct object. The object can be a thing or a person. A direct object does not have to be something tangible. If it answers the question "what?" or "whom?" in relation to a verb, then it's a direct object.

Example:

      1.   The hunter shot a pigeon.

      2.   He pulled the chair.

      3.   Ria wants a new dress.

      4.   The tree will shed its leaves.

      5.   Today I met my old friend.

Intransitive Verb

Read the sentence.

The plant grows.

Now this above sentence has complete sense. Here verb “grows” does not require any object to make the sentence meaningful.

Intransitive verbs don’t have a direct object and stand alone in the predicate and convey complete meaning. In most cases, they are followed by an adverb, adjective, verb complement or a preposition.

Example:

      1.   Ayush jogs for miles every morning.

      2.   Lion is wild animal.

      3.   The worker seems tired.

      4.   Dia became sad.

      5.   They arrived after the function.