Using transitive and intransitive verbs
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What is a transitive verb? | page 3 of 4 |
A list of verbs which are normally used transitively 
The following verbs are typically followed by a direct object 
:
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Note that the choice of direct object which can go with a particular verb depends on
the meaning of the verb, for example the nouns which collocate
with achieve will differ from those
which collocate with affect.
In a corpus of 5 million words the most common
collocates of achieve in direct object position tend to be abstract qualities,
often relating to aims and objectives as follows:
aims, balance, goals, growth, objectives, profits, progress, results, stability, standards, success, targets, victory
Compare this with the common collocates of affect in direct object position and the list contains more concrete entities such as people and land:
children, development, environment, government, Hong Kong, industry, land, lives, morale, people, performance, relations, residents
Teaching implications
When dealing with vocabulary - especially when presenting new verbs to students - it is important to examine whether a verb is typically used transitively or intransitively, and if transitively, then what nouns in direct object position commonly collocate with the verb.
Such information can be obtained from examining the examples in a good dictionary such
as Sinclair, J. (ed) (1987) Cobuild English Language Dictionary, Harper
Collins, and from brainstorming. Another source of collocates is a corpus of different
texts, made available through a concordancer 
.
For further information about illustrate the sorts of problems students have in
deciding whether a verb is typically used transitively or intransitively, see 
Using transitive and intransitive verbs: Students' problems.
Transitive verbs followed by an adverbial
It is worth noting that the direct objects of some transitive verbs are typically
followed by an adverbial which provides additional information about
what is going on. For example, the direct object of the transitive verb rob is
typically followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of:
He robbed the store of $5,000 - and four cake coupons - before ordering Ms Hui to tie up her colleague with nylon string. (SCMP 9/4/94)
Introduction
A list of verbs which are normally used transitively
