Transitive nature

Question

The name of the dead man will not be released until his relatives have been informed.
The above sentence is from an online dictionary.

The verb inform is a transitive one; it means there should be an object for the verb. I don't perceive that there is an object. The word 'informed' is naked here; I mean there is no word follows the verb 'informed'.

2. The relatives have been informed about the death of ...
[ The above sentence has some words attached after the verb 'informed'. So you could say the verb 'informed' is transitive.

My question is how do you say that the tranistive verb 'informed' properly written here.
To be candid, I am not good at judging transitive and intransitive nature of a verb in a sentence.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

The sentence is in the passive. "His relatives have been informed" is the same as "[someone] has informed his relatives."

Informed is a transitive verb, and it remains transitive in the passive. The grammatical subject of the clause, "his relatives," are still the recipient of the action of informing.

Rotter · Answer

Thanks Grammar Geek
As I said this is a tall order for me.
However, you shed some light on this.

Rotter · Answer

When you see a verb, you should be able to judge whether it is tranisitive or intransitive.
I know some verbs are both transitive and intransitive.
How do I know whether a given verb is transitive or intransitive?

[ The forum has some problems. There are double posts from me. The duplication is beyond my control.]

Rotter · Answer

I urge someone to have a look at my latest post. I need to know how to judge the transitive and intransitive nature of a verb.

BarbaraPA · Answer

A good dictionary will tell you whether the verb is transitive or intransitive (or either).

Lok at this example for the verb "see" - it breaks out the transitive use from the intransitive.

Rotter · Answer

Thanks Grammar Geek for the reply.
You didn't understand my question correctly.
I am sure you are able to judge it without referring to a dictionary. You are an expert. So you perceive directly the nature of the verb.

How do I do that? It should be possible to recognize the transitive/intransitive nature when you see a verb.

I will try to give you an example. I am training at the gym 3 times a week. As a matter of fact I just came home from the gym. At the gym, there are about 150 machines. People go close to the machines and read the instructions to find out the type of muscles the machine will help to train. I don't do that. Because I am an expert in gym training. I have been training at gyms since 1991. When I look at a machine I know the relevant muscles for the machine.

Clive · Answer

Hi Rotter,

Is it helpful if you simply think that, with a transitive verb, something must 'receive the action of the verb'? Or is that too simplistic?

Clive

CalifJim · Answer

A verb standing by itself is neither transitive nor intransitive.
You have to see how it's used in a sentence to determine whether it's transitive or not.

If it's transitive it will have an object; that is, there will be a noun following the verb which connects to and completes the meaning of the verb. A transitive verb is a verb that has to do something to something else; it has to act upon something, or create something, or have some effect on something. An intransitive verb does not need anything else to complete its meaning in a sentence.

Jane slept for three hours. sleep is intransitive. Consider the act of sleeping. A person does not sleep something else. A person just sleeps. There is no object in this sentence.

Peter threw the ball. throw is transitive. Consider the act of throwing. A person has to have something in his hand to throw. A person does not just throw. A person must throw something. In this sentence, the ball is the object of the transitive verb throw.
_________

If a sentence has a transitive verb, it may have a passive form. (Sentences with intransitive verbs don't have passive forms. They are always active.) The object of the active form becomes the subject of the passive form. All sentences in passive form come from transitive verbs.

Active: Peter threw the ball.
Passive: The ball was thrown by Peter.

Note that you can always tell a passive by the combination of a form of to be with a past participle. In the passive sentence above was is a form of to be and thrown is a past participle.

Also, the agent (the person who performs the action), shown in the by phrase, can be omitted.

The ball was thrown.
___________

In the sentence at the beginning of the thread you have the words have been informed. been is a form of to be and informed is a past participle. That's a passive structure. In this case, the agent (the person or persons who did the informing) is omitted.

CJ

Rotter · Answer

I thank both Clive and CalifJim for the excellent replies.
It seems even if you are a native English speaker and an expert in English, you can't judge a given verb's transitive/intransitive nature.

You should refer to a dictionary to make sure whether it is transitive or intransitive.
This is my understanding. Please tell me if I understood you wrongly.

I gave you an example of my training at the gym. In other words I tried to draw a parallel between my gym training to the English grammar.
When the gym installs a new machine, I don't look at the tiny instructon notice attached to it. I know exactly the muscles pertaining to the machine.
By the way, thanks to the gym training, I maintain my blood pressure like a man of 25 years of age.

However, a native English speaker knows correct prepositions as well as the idiomatic nature.
Yesterday, Cool Breeze told me why we say that I speak to her on the phone. We don't say I speak to her on phone. Being a native speaker, he knew that it is the idiom. I didn't know it.

Is it not the case when judging the transitive and intransitive nature?
Are you forced to look at a dictionary.

Obviously, there are thousand of verbs. How on earth you should know each and every verb's behaviour!

CalifJim · Answer

Is it not the case when judging the transitive and intransitive nature?
Are you forced to look at a dictionary [ ? ]

No. As I explained, you look at the sentence, or listen to the sentence, not look in the dictionary!

In the dictionary there are many, many verbs that can be used both transitively and intransitively.

There are a list of definitions for the transitive uses and a list of definitions for the intransitive uses. So that doesn't help very much.

walk (intransitive): to move along by foot
walk (transitive): to take (an animal) for a walk; to cause (an animal) to go walking.

I walked through the park. (walk is intransitive.)
I walked the dog through the park. (walk is transitive.)
The dog was walked through the park. (walk is transitive, but in a passive structure.)

You have to look for an object (noun) after the verb, or a passive structure. Then you have a transitive verb. If there is no object, and the sentence is not passive either, then it's an intransitive verb.

CJ

Transitive nature

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