Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs: Italian Grammar Lesson

Transitive vs Intransitive Verbs

Why is Transitivity Important to Learn Italian?

From a linguistic perspective, the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is crucial to understand how verbs interact with their arguments, namely the nouns they combine with.

Understanding this concept will allow you to better grasp the syntax (order of items in a sentence), the semantics (meaning and interpretation of a sentence), and the overall structure of sentences in Italian, as well as in any other language.

For instance, I will explain to you that transitive verbs tend to imply a more direct effect of the action on the object, while intransitive verbs often describe states, motions, or processes.

Also, you will finally understand why the choice between essere and avere in compound verbs! As an Italian tutor, I know this is a hard topic, but, guess what?

Learning something about linguistics will allow you to finally understand the underlying mechanism behind this choice and you will finally be able to choose the right auxiliary verb.

Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that select a direct object to complete their meaning. Direct objects require no preposition to be introduced.

What I always tell my students when explaining this topic is that the link between the verb and the object is direct, without the use of any preposition. Therefore the transition of the action expressed by the verb to the object is direct.

Sentences with a transitive verb follow the Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure, for instance:

Where legge is the transitive verb, and un libro is the direct object.

In more linguistic terms, we say that transitive verbs have a valency of two because they require two participants to form a grammatically correct sentence: subject and object.

Intransitive Verbs

Intransitive verbs can either take a indirect object, or nothing at all. In the case of an indirect object, this must be introduced by a preposition. In general, they indicate motion or a change of state.

For this type of verbs, I always say that the link between the verb and the object is indirect, because the verb needs a preposition. Therefore there is an indirect transition between the action expressed by the verb and its object.

Sentences with an intransitive verb generally follow a Subject-Verb (SV) structure or – as I personally like to label it – an SVpO structure, where “p” is the preposition, for instance:

Where dorme is an intransitive verb that does not require a direct object.

Where andiamo is an intransitive verb and parco is the indirect object, which is, in fact, introduced by the preposition a. Specifically, here the preposition is combined with the definite article il.

In more linguistic terms, we say that intransitive verbs have a valency of one because they require only one participant to form a grammatically correct sentence, namely the subject.

However, I believe it is important that you know that some intransitive verbs have a valency of three. This is the case of verbs that take both a direct and indirect object, like dare (to give).

Where ha dato is the intransitive verb, il libro is the direct object, and a Miriam is the indirect object.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs in Italian

Transitive Verbs in Italian

Now that you have a general knowledge of transitive verbs, let me guide you through the most common Italian transitive verbs:

Let’s see some examples:

Intransitive Verbs in Italian