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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:
- akala/ya’kulu (أكَل\يَأكُل): to eat
- shariba/yashrubu (شرِب\يَشرُبُ): to drink
- dakhala/yadkhulu (دخَلَ\يَدخُلُ): to enter
- qara’a/yaqra’u (قرَأ\يَقرَأ): to recite
- ‘arafa/ya’rifu (عرَف\يَعرِفُ): to know
Some intransitive verbs in Arabic include:
- khajara/yakhruju (خرَج\يَخرُجُ): to exit
- maata/yamuwtu (مات\يَمُوتُ): to die
- thahaba/yathhabu (ذهَب\يَذهَبُ): to go
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:
The teacher left from the class. Notice the use of min. Similarly, with dakhala, you can say:
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.
Topics: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
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.
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.
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
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.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:08 am
Could you please tell me whether the equivalent of ‘appreciate’ in Arabic is intransitive? Could you say the equivalent of ‘I appreciate’?
With many thanks.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:08 am
@Ronald, sorry, I don’t know what “appreciate” is in Arabic. I know that you can say “thanks,” though; and that verb is transitive (just like in English–”thank you”)
To say “thank you,” you say: ashkurukum (اشكركم).
Hope that helps!
August 19th, 2010 at 10:20 am
MAY ALLAH GIVE YOU REWARD FOR IT.I AM A PAKISTANI.SINCE LONG I AM TRYING TO LEARN ARABIC FOR UNDERSTANDING QURAN. BUT HARDLY ARABIC TEACHERS ARE AVAILABLE.SPECIALLY I HAVE PROBLEM IN TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERB IN SALASI MAZID.IF YOU MAY HELP THAN I SHALL BE THANKFUL TO YOU.
August 20th, 2010 at 5:20 am
Nice and clear explanation. Thanks
Was struggling with transitive and intransitive.
Why though it isn’t the same always for English and Arabic both?
August 20th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Allahu a’lam why; maybe because English is from the family that came from Latin and European languages, while Arabic came from an entirely different family of languages.