Transitive and Intransitive verbs

[Elitez]

1.Philip resented giving his room to his brother.

2.The writer gestured to the crowd with his pen.

I have seen these sentences in a website and thought that the first sentence verb is a intransitive verb and second is transitive verb. When I saw the answer the first was transitive verb and second intransitive verb. I am little bit confused with these. Need help in understanding this.

 

[SoothingDave]

What do you think "transitive" means?

 

[Elitez]

Transitive verbs expresses an action and are followed by a direct object. In second sentence, crowd is object so I feel it should be a transitive verb.

 

[tkacka15]

1.Philip resented giving his room to his brother.

2.The writer gestured to the crowd with his pen.

I have seen these sentences in a website and thought that the first sentence verb is a intransitive verb and second is transitive verb. When I saw the answer the first was transitive verb and second intransitive verb. I am little bit confused with these. Need help in understanding this.

I'm not a teacher.

You can easily identify the transitive verb by changing the structure of the sentence from the declarative one into the passive. It is only possible to do with the first sentence: "Giving his room to his brother was resented by Philip." You cannot do that with the second sentence.

 

[Barb_D]

Mike, Elitez *IS* the original poster.

A transitive verb does take a direct object.
Resent is transitive. What did he resent? He resented giving his room to his brother.

Gesture is not transitive - gesturing "at" the crowd does not make the crowd a direct object.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Oops!

 

[tkacka15]

Transitive verbs expresses an action and are followed by a direct object. In second sentence, crowd is object so I feel it should be a transitive verb.

I'm not a teacher.

In the second sentence the propositional phrase "to the crowd with his pen" is an adverbial, not the direct object. You can use the verb "gesture" in a transitive way like that: "She gestured me over with her hand." In such a sentence there is the direct object, i.e. "me", so you can change the sentence into the passive one: "I was gestured over by her."

 

[Matthew Wai]

Gesture is not transitive - gesturing "at" the crowd does not make the crowd a direct object.

I think 'the crowd' can be the direct object of the preposition 'at', but I am not a teacher.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Prepositions have objects, but "direct" objects are reserved for verbs. It's terminology.

 

[Matthew Wai]

In second sentence, crowd is object so I feel it should be a transitive verb.

'Crowd' is the object of 'at' but not the direct object of 'gestured', which is an intransitive verb.

I think it makes sense to say so, but I am not a teacher.

 

[mawes12]

Gesture is not transitive - gesturing "at" the crowd does not make the crowd a direct object.

I saw that "gesture" can be transitive too.

 

[emsr2d2]

Where did you see that?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I saw that in post#7.

 

[bhaisahab]

Post #7 is wrong. "gesture" is not a transitive verb.

 

[bhaisahab]

I'm not a teacher.

In the second sentence the propositional phrase "to the crowd with his pen" is an adverbial, not the direct object. You can use the verb "gesture" in a transitive way like that: "She gestured me over with her hand." In such a sentence there is the direct object, i.e. "me", so you can change the sentence into the passive one: "I was gestured over by her."

That's not correct.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think that would be correct if 'beckoned' was used instead of 'gestured', but I am not a teacher.

 

[bhaisahab]

Yes, "beckoned" would work.

 

[MikeNewYork]

According to American Heritage Dictionary, "gesture" can be transitive (although not in the OP's sentence. The example it gave is
She gestured her disapproval. (I get an image of an extended middle finger.)

 

[tkacka15]

I'm not a teacher.

"gesture (verb; I + adv/prep; T + object + adv/prep) - to call or direct with the movement of the body: "She gestured to the waiter to bring some more coffe"/"He gestured me over with the movement of his head." (From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - New Edition.)

 

[mawes12]

Where did you see that?

I pressed "define" in the iPhone. The example said "he gestured her towards a chair" and I think it means the same as "show". Am I right?

not a teacher.