Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Japanese verbs are grouped into two categories called Transitive and Intransitive; sometimes, verbs may be placed in both groups. Transitivity exists in pretty much all languages, English too, even if you've never learnt about it before. What makes using verbs with the Object を or Subject が particles a little more difficult is that transitivity works rather differently in Japanese.

What is Transitivity?

Transitivity is a verb with the property of being transitive (having or needing a direct object) or intransitive (not having or needing a direct object). Transitivity derives from the Latin word "trans" (or "transire") literally meaning "passing over (to another)"; this can be interpreted as to transfer.

In the case of being transitive, the subject transfers the action of the verb to the object. an apple got eaten; a new car got wanted; a mouse got killed. The subject states by who or what caused the action of the verb and the object states what got affected by this action.

Being intransitive is the opposite to this; there is no transfer of action from the subject but instead it expresses a change to the subject itself. It was an hour that elapsed; It was Susie who arrived; It was the ship that sank; It is bears that hibernate. The subject does something all by itself rather than the person or thing being affected by or having something done to it.

Transitivity Pairs

While the English language has the Labile Verb to describe an action that can be either transitive or intransitive with related meanings (the sub sank a ship; the ship sank), transitivity in Japanese is somewhat different.

Labile verbs in English either stay the same (sink; open; play etc.) or have completely different words but express the same thing (dropped => fell; arrive => deliver etc.); in Japanese, verbs share the same base and Kanji characters but have different endings (止める [tomeru] => 止まる [tomaru]). However, not all Japanese verbs have pairs.

Unfortunately, there are no rules to differentiate between transitive and intransitive verbs in Japanese. The only best way around this is to memorise them as you come across or use them.

Using the を and が Particles

Transitive verbs are used with Direct objects to present a change of state; there is a connection between a subject and an object; the Subject が transfers the action of the Verb to the Object を, affecting it.

In this example, the ドア (door) is the object; this is because 開けます (to open) is transitive and that's why it is marked with the Object を particle. Also, the one doing the transitive action is 私 (I). We know this because 私 is marked with the Subject が particle. Simply, the subject does the verb which affects the object: The one who caused the door to open was me.

Intransitive verbs are the opposite and don't work with Direct objects; the Subject が does the action of the Verb all by itself rather than an object being affected by or having something done to it.

In this example , the ドア (door) is not the direct object; because 開きます (akimasu) is intransitive, the ドア is the subject and for that reason, it is marked with the Subject が particle. Because the subject does something all by itself, the "door" opens on its own, kind of like how an automatic door opens when you get close to it.

Using を with Movement Verbs

Even though we've mentioned that Intransitive Verbs cannot take the Direct Object を particle, there are some verbs that are intransitive yet still use the を particle.

In the example above, you'll see that the intransitive verb 歩いた (aruita) meaning "walked" doesn't take an object. After all, the walking didn't happen to the store. The store would not afterwards say "Wow, I just got walked". Here, the walking was done by the subject alone (Johnny walked), the まで (made) particle is used to describe where Johnny walked to.

However, what if we wanted to say something like "Johnny walked the Nakasendo"? The walking didn't happen to the (中山道) Nakasendo, right? (Just so you know the context of this example, the Nakasendo is an old walking route that connected Tokyo and Kyoto during the Edo period.)

Now notice that we have an object marked by the を particle. The verb 歩いた (aruita) is still considered an intransitive verb despite the presence of an object. The walking still did not happen to the Nakasendo.

What is actually happening here is that the を particle marks a path in which the verb takes such as "through" or "along"; this is why our alternative translation includes "walked along the Nakasendo". The Object is not affected by the movement of the Verb.

Here are some more examples to describe moving along a path. the subject 私が (watashi ga) is optional and is commonly omitted in Japanese which is why we've placed them in brackets to show you how a full sentence would look like from a grammatical viewpoint.

Additional Notes