Japanese language & culture blog
Verb transitivity, similar to valency, indicates whether a verb takes direct objects, or not. Unlike English, which is fairly lax in its rules on transitivity and allows ambitransitive verbs, the Japanese language divides most verbs into two groups: transitive and intransitive.
Intransitive: He slept till noon.
Transitive: She lifted the bag.
Ambitransitive: I broke the cup. and The cup broke.
Intransitive verbs are used according to the pattern S + が + V, whereas transitive verbs take on the pattern (S +) DO + を + V.
Intransitive: 会社のパソコンが壊れた。— The company computer broke down.
Transitive: 彼女が私のケータイを壊した。— She broke my mobile phone.
The only time you’ll see を used with an intransitive verb is when a location is the direct object of a motion verb.
Intransitive: ラーメン屋を出た。— I left the ramen shop.
Intransitive
|
Transitive
|
||
---|---|---|---|
to exit | 出る |
出す
|
to take out
|
to grow | 生える |
生やす
|
to cultivate
|
to get up | 起きる |
起こす
|
to wake sb
|
to get dry | 乾く |
乾かす
|
to dry sth
|
to open | 開く |
開ける
|
to open sth
|
to board | 乗る |
乗せる
|
to take on board
|
to return | 返る |
返す
|
to put back
|
to break | 壊れる |
壊す
|
to break sth
|
to hang | 掛かる |
掛ける
|
to hang sth
|
to burn | 焼ける |
焼く
|
to bake
|
to be visible | 見える |
見る
|
to look
|
to enter | 入る |
入れる
|
to put in
|
While this makes it easier to understand how to use each verb, it also makes it important to learn the differences between them. To make the process more fun, you can learn Japanese verb pairs with NihongoUp, my Japanese study game which now includes a new Transitivity grammar mode.