Transitive, Intransitive, Ditransitive and Ambitransitive Verbs Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff Concordia University School of Law, Tfordyce@Cu-Portland.Edu

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2-2015 Beyond the Basics: Transitive, Intransitive, Ditransitive and Ambitransitive Verbs Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff Concordia University School of Law, [email protected]

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CU Commons Citation Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Beyond the Basics: Transitive, Intransitive, Ditransitive and Ambitransitive Verbs, Advocate, Feb. 2015, at 54.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at CU Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of CU Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Beyond the Basics: Transitive, Intransitive, Ditransitive and Ambitransitive Verbs Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff ere’s a good laugh: Lori walks into the kitchen and says to Greg, “Make H me a sandwich.” Greg waives his hands wildly and replies, “Poof! You’re a sandwich.” I know you all love a good grammar joke as much as I do. That one’s worth at least a chuckle, right? But, don’t you wonder what makes that funny? And don’t you wonder if the correct phrasing should be “Please make a sandwich for me”? The answer lies, of course, in grammar. To understand whether entine’s Day aren’t receiving the ac- transitive. Instead, they are ambi- “Make me a sandwich” is a correct tion of baked. In grammatical terms, transitive. They can act as any of way to ask someone to prepare a for Valentine’s Day is a prepositional these types of verbs depending on sandwich, you need to understand a phrase and yesterday is an adverb. context. little more about verbs, objects, and So, what about the sandwich The little boy broke the lamp. object complements. joke? Is me a direct object? Is please (transitive) make a sandwich for me the only cor- My oven broke yesterday. rect phrasing? Transitive and intransitive verbs (intransitive) Wait — to answer that one you Transitive verbs are verbs that have need to know a little more about She opened a new shoe store. a thing to receive the action — they verbs. (transitive) take a direct object. The store opened early today. I wrote a grammar article. Ditransitive verbs (intransitive) I baked a cake. Like transitive verbs, ditransitive I paid the mechanic. I told a joke. verbs take a direct object, but they (transitive) Intransitive verbs take only a sub- also take an indirect object. This We already paid. ject and lack a direct object. indirect object always comes before (intransitive) the direct object, and it usually refers The grammar guide fell. Still, wondering if make me a to someone who benefits from the sandwich is correct? The answer is I cried. action You laughed. coming, after a little more gram- Lori gave Greg a break. mar. . . . This seems simple enough. So Send your wife a card. think about this sentence: I baked My husband brought me some flowers. Resultative verbs for Valentine’s Day yesterday. Is baked Get your assistant to help. transitive or intransitive? Resultative verbs (sometimes If you answered intransitive, Show grammar nerds some love! called attributive ditransitive verbs) you’re correct. This sentence lacks Most English verbs are neither take a direct object and an object direct object; in other words for Val- purely transitive/ditranstive or in- complement — a word or phrase

54 The Advocate • February 2015 that describes how the direct object The answer ends up. Yes — make me a sandwich is a He painted the barn red. grammatically correct way to ask The jury found the defendant guilty. someone to prepare you a meal. It The humor in the jokes comes Grammar jokes drive me crazy. is perfectly correct to use make as a because make can function as a ditransitive verb. Okay, so here’s where it gets in- ditransitive or a resultative verb. teresting. Make can be a resultative The humor in the jokes comes verb. because make can function as a ditransitive or a resultative verb. Bad writing makes me mad. In the serious version, make func- My students make me proud. tions as a ditransitive verb, sandwich But what does that do about functions as a direct object, and me the joke? Let’s take a moment to functions as an indirect object. switch from verbs to adjectives and In the funny version, make func- lish-verbs-copular-intransitive-transi- nouns — then we will get to the tions as a resultative verb, sandwich tive-ditransitive-and-mbitransitive/#W answer. functions as an object complement, V9UoCPIISVscD5H.99 and me functions as a direct object. Noun phrases as adjectives  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/ Conclusion education/grammar/make-me-a-sand- So far, the examples of resultative wich-a-joke-about-verbs verbs have all used an adjective as the While make me a sandwich is as object complement: red, guilty, crazy, grammatically correct as make a About the Author mad, and proud. sandwich for me, it still highlights a But some resultative verbs can potential problem. Because many Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff is an As- take noun phrases or adjectives as verbs have diff erent functions, they sistant Professor of Law and the Di- object complements. can create ambiguity in our writing. rector of the Legal Research and Writ- Grammar jokes make me the happiest Thus, check your sentence struc- ing Program at Concordia University girl in the world. ture and word choices to make sure School of Law in Boise.oiise. SheShe is alsoalso Off So, what does that do to our your meaning is clear. Counsel at Fisher question? If make can take me as an All this grammar has made me re- Rainey Hudson. object complement, did Lori, gram- ally hungry. I’m off to make myself You can reach her matically speaking, ask Greg to turn a sandwich. at tfordyce@ cu- her into a sandwich? portland.edu or Sources Now you’re ready to learn the an- http://cu-portland. swer.  http://www.linguisticsgirl.com/eng- edu

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