English Grammar - Type of Verbs

There are three kinds of verbs: transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, and linking verbs.

Transitive verbs take objects. That is, these verbs carry the action of a subject and apply it to an object. They tells us what the subject (agent) does to something else (object).

Examples:   He  bought     a shirt.
        (agent) (did something) (object- answers the question "what?")

        She brushes her hair every hour.

        Marina will lose the race.

Note that the transitive verb can take any tense.

Intransitive verbs do not take an object; they express actions that do not require the agent's doing something to something else.

Examples:   Tom danced.

        The intransitive verb "danced" is a
        complete action by itself and does not require a direct
        object to receive the action.

        They ran down the road.

        They ran, but they do not run "something" in this sentence.
        The sentence contains no object.

        Jack fell on the rocks in the alley.

Tip: Some verbs can function as both transitive and intransitive verbs.

Example:
     intransitive: She dances.
     transitive:   She dances the rhumba.

Linking verbs link the relationship between the agent and the rest of the sentence. They explain the connection between the subject and its complement or that which completes the subject's description.

The most common linking verb is "to be." Some other linking verbs are:

     appear       feel      remain      sound
     become       grow      seem        stay
     continue     look      smell       taste


Examples:   Opera seems overly dramatic to the music novice.

        "overly dramatic" describes the agent or subject "opera" but
        it does not express an action that "opera" performs.

        He appeared jubilant at the news of the inheritance.

        I am pathetically inept in such situations.

        He is a doctor of bioethics.

        Note:  while "a doctor" answers the question "what?" the verb
        is not an action verb, but rather a "state of being" verb.
        Therefore, is is not a transitive verb; it links the
        subject (he) with his state of being (doctor).

Remember, however, if what follows the verb can provide an answer to the question "what," then the verb is not a linking verb.

Compare:    He tastes the soup as he cooks it.

        "tastes" is transitive:  he tastes "what?"

        The fruit tastes rotten.

        "rotten" describes or complements the state of the fruit,
        and therefore tastes links the agent (fruit) and its
        condition (rotten).