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    Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

    By ArabicTree | June 7, 2008

    In English and Arabic, we can classify verbs as both transitive and intransitive. (Does anyone know the Arabic terms for these words?)

    Transitive verbs are verbs that take a maf’ool (an object, or recipient of the verb). In English, transitive verbs include: eat (eat what?), and say (say what?).

    Intransitive verbs take no maf’ool–they’re just there by themselves. This includes verbs like swim, skate, and die (in English).

    Some transitive verbs in Arabic include:

    Some intransitive verbs in Arabic include:

    Some intransitive verbs indirectly take a maf’ool through a harful-jarr–verbs like kharaja and thahaba, which take min and ila respectfully (you’ll notice a few of the above verbs are like that).

    So you can say:

    المُدَرِّسُ خَرَجَ مِن الفَصلِ

    The teacher left from the class. Notice the use of min. Similarly, with dakhala, you can say:

    التُلابُ سَيَذهَبُ إلى الفَصلِ

    The students went into the class. Notice the use of ila.

    And be careful! Verbs that are intransitive in English might be transitive in Arabic, and verbs that are transitive in English might be intransitive in Aarabic–so don’t assume anything! For example, thahaba (to go) is intransitive in Arabic, but transitive in English–you can say “I went home,” but you can’t say “thahabtu as-suwqa.”

    As we mentioned, some transitive verbs take more than one maf’ool; but these, we’ll cover as a separate topic, bi idhnillah.

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    4 Responses to “Transitive and Intransitive Verbs”

    1. Ibn Uthman Says:
      June 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

      Assalam ‘alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

      Excellent post! The Arabic words for intransitive and transitive are اللاَّزِم (Laazim) and الْمُتَعَدِّيْ (Muta’addi) respectively.

      “Go where?” I would classify as intransitive but having an indirect object through إِلَى , as you say towards the end.

    2. ArabicTree Says:
      June 10th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

      Wa’alikum as-salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

      Jazakumullahu khayran! Actually, that example about “go” was in English; in English, you can say “go home,” but Allahu ‘alim, it’s usually used with “to,” the same as Arabic.

    3. Cree Says:
      October 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

      Hi!
      Thank you for publishing this wanderful part of arabic grammar.
      Do you have other parts or do you know where to find them?

      Thank you so much. I”am learning arabic

      Cree

    4. Arabic Tree Says:
      October 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

      Hi Cree,

      You can try other parts of our site, or our search; try the links in the top-right of our site (Internals, etc.); or try finding a local Arabic class. That’s probably the best.

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