Verbs express an action, occurrence or state within a sentence. The words "transitive" and "intransitive" describe two different kinds of verbs. You can identify a transitive verb or intransitive verb by studying the sentence in which it appears to see if it contains a direct or indirect object.
Objects
An object often follows a verb in a sentence and makes that verb's meaning more clear. For example, in the sentence "Sally kicked the ball," the word "ball" functions as the direct object for the verb "kicked." The University of Ottowa Writing Center suggests that you look for the verb in a sentence and then phrase a question with that verb and the word "whom" or "what" to identify the direct object. In the example above, the word "ball" answers the question, "kicked what?" If you extend the above example to "Sally kicked the ball to Fred," then "Fred" becomes the indirect object, answering the question "kicked the ball to whom?"
Transitive Verbs
Transitive verbs rely on objects to express their full meaning. If you can identify an object in a sentence, than that sentence contains a transitive verb. For example, the verb "kicked" in "Sally kicked the ball" relies on the object "ball" for its meaning. The sentence "Sally kicked" would make less sense. The verb "kicked" is transitive in this case.
Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive verbs do not rely on objects. If you cannot identify an object in a sentence, then that sentence contains an intransitive verb. For example, in the sentence "Sally smiled," the verb "smiled" functions as an intransitive verb with no object. Depending on the sentence, however, verbs can function as either an intransitive or a transitive verb. For example, if you extended the above sentence to read "Sally smiled at Fred," then the verb "smiled" becomes transitive, with "Fred" as the object.
Adverbs
You might mistake an adverb for an object, and therefore incorrectly identify an intransitive verb as a transitive verb. The University of Ottowa Writing Center website provides several examples of sentences that contain intransitive verbs and adverbs rather than transitive verbs and objects. An adverb describes or modifies the verb in a sentence. Prepositional phrases can also act as adverbs. For example, in the sentence "The conversation carried across the room," the phrase "across the room" functions as an adverb describing the intransitive verb "carried." The verb "carried" has no direct or indirect object in the sentence, making it an intransitive verb. In other contexts, however, the word carried might function as a transitive verb. In the sentence "She carried the plate," for example, "plate" functions as a direct object and "carried" functions as a transitive verb.
Exercises
You can practice identifying transitive and intransitive verbs with a variety of exercises online. Quia.com provides a quiz in which you must identify the verb in each sentence and label it as transitive or intransitive. Grammarunited.com provides a verb practice exercise in which you must identify each sentence's verb as either transitive, intransitive, linking or auxiliary.
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