Transitive and intransitive pairs
Japanese has verb pairs where Spanish or English use one verb plus “-self”: 開ける (I open something) and 開く (something opens); 始める and 始まる; 出す and 出る; 消す and 消える. The transitive takes を and someone responsible; the intransitive takes が and describes what happens without naming a culprit. That is why Japanese sounds impersonal: 電気が消えました (the light went out) avoids saying who turned it off. The pair cannot be deduced from the form, it must be learnt together, but one pattern helps: if one ends in える and the other in ある or く, the える one is usually transitive.
Where this sits
- Comes after
- The て form
Exercises from this rung
Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest
暑いので、窓___開けました。
- を
- で
- が
- に
Why 開ける takes を because there is someone acting. The full set of pairs: 開ける/開く, 閉める/閉まる, 始める/始まる, 出す/出る. Learning them two at a time halves the effort.
easierかばんに本が___います。
- 入って
- 入らせて
- 入れて
- 入られて
Why 入る (to go in, to be inside) is intransitive; 入れる (to put in) is transitive. With ている, the intransitive describes how the thing is: 入っている, it is inside.
in between机の上に手紙が置いて___。
- あります
- みます
- おきます
- います
Why てある says someone left it that way on purpose, without saying who. It is built with a transitive verb and a が subject. It is the nuance separating “it is open” from “it has been left open”.
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