Transitive verb

A transitive verb takes a direct object: it needs something to act on, so the sentence names both the doer and the thing done to — 'she closed the file'.

She closed the file. The verb needs an object to be complete — she closed on its own leaves the reader waiting for the rest. The object, the file, is what the action lands on, and grammar calls it the direct object.

The quick test is to ask what? straight after the verb. If the sentence answers, the verb is transitive here. If nothing answers, it is intransitive. Many verbs are both, depending on use: she ran the department is transitive, she ran is not.

Why it matters on the page. Transitive constructions are the ones that carry agency, and agency is what makes prose feel like things are happening. Compare:

• The decision was regretted. — no one in the sentence.
• The committee regretted the decision. — a transitive verb, and now somebody is responsible.

A scene that keeps losing its actors is usually a scene that has stopped using transitive verbs, either through the passive voice or through a noun standing in for the action, which is the problem described under hidden verbs.

A transitive verb that takes two objects, a direct and an indirect, is called ditransitive.