他動詞(たどうし)・自動詞(じどうし)Done through action vs. occurring on its own

Most Recent Replies (26 in total)

• 

  Pushindawood

  Done through action vs. occuring on its own.

  Structure
  落 とす ・落 ちる → To drop・To fall
  つ ける ・つ く → To attach・To be attached

  Transitive verbs are verbs that should be used with を (direct object marker), which indicates the object with which the verb “operates”
  [“I drop the battery” - the operation is “dropping” and the object of the operation is “battery”. “I attach a ribbon.”]

  Intransitive verbs do not need an object (marked by を) and describe the action someone/something is subjected to (without an agent)
  [“The battery falls (by itself).” or “The ribbon is attached.”]

  [There are some exceptions.]

  View on Bunpro

• 

  snugglesnacks

  Hi, I have a question about this question:
• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and sorry for the late answer

  You are right! The sentence has been fixed!

  Thank you for the feedback, and we are really sorry for the inconvenience

• 

  snugglesnacks

  No worries! Thanks for letting me know!

• 

  someone2020

  How are you supposed to know which is intransitive/transitive, and how do you make intransitive/transitive verbs? Just curious…

• 

  snugglesnacks

  There’s a bit of helpful info here – don’t have to watch the video (which many find off-putting) as the article has some pretty good concise tips.

  I also struggle with transitive and intransitive pairing but I figure it’s something that will probably become more natural as I consume more material. Is learning via osmosis a great study plan? Not sure but here I am praying that it is

• 

  skymaiden

  Hi!

  I’ve recently added the “Transitive - Intransitive Verbs” grammar point to my reviews, and I’m constantly failing this point because of how these questions work: I’m expected to already know the “other” verb already.

  Most tips I’ve seen around the internet about guessing which verb transitive and which is intransitive, are based on seeing both together…it’s harder to guess based on a single verb.

  So in the reviews for this grammar point, if I don’t already know the other verb then I usually fail – even though I do generally understand how to use transitive and intransitive verbs, and I can sometimes recognise which is which if I see the two together.

  What is the best way to go about making proper progress on this grammar point? It is something I would like to work on, but it just doesn’t feel helpful in its current state.
  I’ve seen a couple other threads on this forum on the same topic without a lot of input…
  

• 

  JT421

  I am not a fan of the way the transitive/intransitive pairs grammar point works. There are a couple of issues.

  First, and I think this has been mentioned before, is that the paradigm is different to the way much of Bunpro works. A verb is presented that is not actually part of the answer.

  Second, and for me this is the bigger issue, is that it is not really a grammar question, but more of a vocabulary question since it relies on the user having already studied the particular pair presented in the question. Some have suggested providing both the transitive and intransitive verbs, which is better, but it would still essentially be a vocabulary problem. The user would still have had to study both verbs.

  The only way I can think to make it a purely grammatical question is to provide the user both the transitive and intransitive verbs, and tell them which is which. Obviously, in this situation, there wouldn’t be a hint as to which one should be used in the sentence. ...

• 

  mrnoone

  I like the idea!

• 

  Pushindawood

  @skymaiden, @seanblue, and @JT421 Thank you all for your feedback on transitive and intransitive verbs. I have updated the Meaning page to include more examples and information about transitive/intransitive verbs and have highlighted and separated transitive and intransitive verbs for better readability. In example sentences, transitive and intransitive verbs are more clearly labeled. Review questions now display both the transitive and intransitive verbs, so now all you need to do is pick the correct one and conjugate. If you type an intransitive verb when a transitive verb is expected, you will get a hint. Cheers!

• 

  greeneggsnsam

  I have a question about this entry:

  雨（あめ）が降（ふ）った時（とき）窓（まど）が あいていた から、床（ゆか）が濡（ぬ）れている。

  Since the window had been open when it was raining, the floor is wet.

  I don’t understand this as I’m not sure what other grammar is being included here. Why is the answer “あいていた” and not “あった”? I don’t know what the ”いた” is doing here. I sort of understand why the TE form is being used but not the second part.

• 

  nekoyama

  The verb is 開く (to open) and the past form is あいた (opened).

  The て-いる form is used to express a state of being open/having opened: https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/764
  (Also at the end with ぬれる “to get wet“).

  Here it’s in the past to say that it was open.

• 

  greeneggsnsam

  Ok, so I wasn’t being dim - this grammar point isn’t even in my reviews. A bit annoying as your link is the first time I’ve even heard of this grammar point.

• 

  jclarke

  I feel like the way the question is currently set up, it’s testing me on whether I know the meanings of the english words “transative” and “intransitive” and not whether I can make these forms myself.

• 

  girl_in_the_shell

  Hey, I have started to use Bunpro a few weeks ago and so far the SRS system has been pretty easy to understand and effective. However I’m a bit lost on the purpose of this grammar point in particular. I get the explanation of Transitive/Intransitive, but I don’t know how exactly the SRS questions are supposed to help me.

  For reference this is how these questions seem to look right now:
  
• 

  U5dRAWznc

  My issue with the current iteration of this grammar’s reviews is the fact that the choice of when to fail and when to warn doesn’t make sense to me.

  My understanding of the grammar point and the suggestions that were implemented to reach the current version, is that the main point of it is to choose the correct verb out of the two presented.
  And the fact that this verb then might need to be conjugated as seen in previous grammar points is merely a secondary task to help reinforce them.

  However, choosing the wrong verb for that main task merely produces a warning with a hint which particle to look for, giving me a second chance. And since there are only two choices, this means you can never fail the main task.

  Whereas for the secondary tasks of conjugating the chosen verb, where sometimes only parts of the conjugation are even included in the hints (e.g. only [casual] above, but there’s past tens...

• 

  U5dRAWznc

  I’m not sure if I just hit a new batch of tests or if the grammar point was changed within the last few days, but it has become a lot worse.

  The question now explicitly shows the opposite of the transitive/intransitive pair, which

  • tells you which variant you need, by process of elimination
  • gives you a hint how it needs to be conjugated
• 

  Thousand

  I have a few questions about this because I regularly fail reviews in here. And ironically basically never because of wether to use the transitive or intransitive verb but always because of some other grammar issue (I might not have even learned yet).

  Take this sentence for example:
  本当に気温が急に下がりましたね
  which translates to:
  The temperature really has suddenly dropped (become low), hasn’t it?

  My first question is, why is this the past form when the original english is in the present perfect? I guess, Japanese doesn’t really have an equivalent for this, but is it always like that? Or would the present be ok as well?

  Another question: Why isn’t casual past + desu allowed as well? Other examples allow this combination on verbs as polite form although according to Tae Kim it shouldn’t. So I am highly confused if that’s ok or not

• 

  mrnoone

  @Thousand
  Hey and welcome on the community forums, good questions you have here

  In Japanese past form (the たending) of the verb is used to express both actions that were completed or things that have existed in past (past simple) and actions ...

• 

  Thousand

  It does, a lot. Thank you very much