Question

Is "come" a transitive or intransitive verb?

Answer 1

Hint: Verbs are the action words. They tell us about the action, time or state of being of the subject in any sentence. They can describe a physical action, mental action or simply the state of being. There are different types of verbs which are linking, transitive, intransitive, action, phrasal, auxiliary, modal, irregular and stative verbs.

Complete answer:
In the above question, we have to identify whether “ come” is a transitive verb or an intransitive verb. So, let us first understand what are transitive and are intransitive verbs.

Transitive verbs- These are the verbs whose action is received by a direct object. It may also have an indirect object. We can find direct objects in a sentence with a transitive verb by simply asking ‘what’/’whom’ to the verb. For e.g. She threw the ball. Here, ‘threw’ is the past form of the verb ‘ throw’ and the action of throwing is directly received by the object ‘ball’. E.g. with indirect objects - She gave her friends sweets. Here, ‘friends’ is an indirect object and sweets is a direct object.

Intransitive verb - These are the verbs whose action isn’t directly received by an object, sentences with such verbs do not have any object altogether For e.g. The girl was dancing.

Therefore, Come is an intransitive verb because using it in a sentence will not generate answers for ‘what’/’whom’. For e.g. Come soon. Or He has come a long way. Here, we cannot apply the questions of what or whom to identify the direct object.

Note:
- In the case of sentences with an indirect object the direct object is always preceded by the indirect object.
- Linking verbs (sense verbs such as look, touch etc) are always intransitive verbs.
Example of verbs: think, slide and stand etc.