Definitions and Examples of Grammar in English - English Grammar for Teachers - General English Question and Answer - English Interview Quiz - General English for TNPSC Exams
What are phrasal verbs? Phrasal verbs are verbs that consist of two or three words. The first word is a verb and it is followed by an adverb or a prepositions or both.
As distinguished from Linking Verb, a verb that tells what the subject is doing. When transitive verbs have objects they are connected to, the verb identifies whether the subjects are the ones in action or the ones the action is directed toward.
The action verbs are divided into two classes. Transitive and intransitive. These verbs tell us what the subjects do. The transitive verbs come from Latin “trans”, meaning “across”. When we use a transitive verb, the action is carried across the verb to a complement. When we use an intransitive verb, the action terminates with the verb.
Transitive Verb
A transitive verb is one which takes an object directly.
e.g.
She eats a mango
Take this box
I bought a diamond bracelet
The fish fell offthe hook
Intransitive Verb
An intransitive verb is one which does not and cannot take on a direct object but but can have an indirect object. The intransitive verbs clearly and completely communicate without a direct object
e.g.
Dogs bark
What happened?
Children play
The train runs late every day
The same verb may be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another.
e.g.
Transitive
The engineer stopped the bus
Intransitive
The bus stopped
Verbs of being are really intransitive and they are called Incomplete Verbs or Verbs of Incomplte Predication. An incomplete verb requires a complement to complete the sense.
e.g.
They are great friends
Verbs like seem, appear, become are incomplete verbs.