Transitive Verbs

“We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.” – Voltaire

These are the kinds of Japanese verbs you already know, for the most part. Transitive verbs are verbs where you actually do something (and you do it to something else). An action has taken place, and someone (could be you, could be someone else) is responsible for it. i.e., it didn’t just “happen.”

Here’s some examples.

こども　を　おこした。
I woke the child.

テレビ　を　けした。
I turned off the TV.

ドア　を　あけた。
I opened the door.

Now, pay extra close attention to these sentences. The three example sentences on the next page (which is about Intransitive Verbs) will be very similar (but not the same!).

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