Japanese transitive and intransitive verbs, explained

Where English uses one verb for both jobs ("I opened the door", "the door opened"), Japanese usually has two related verbs. These eleven pairs come up in the first year of study and in every day of life in Japan. Learn each one as a pair, with its particle, never as a single word.

A transitive verb (他動詞, tadōshi) describes an action someone performs on something. The person who acts is the subject, marked with が (or は if it is the topic), and the thing acted on is the object, marked with を. The frame is 人が物を開ける: a person opens a thing.

An intransitive verb (自動詞, jidōshi) describes a change the thing goes through. There is no object, so there is no を: the thing itself becomes the subject and takes が. The frame is 物が開く: a thing opens. The sentence does not say who caused the change, or whether anyone did.

Each pair below describes one kind of event twice. The first sentence names a doer and uses を; the second leaves the doer out and puts が on the thing that changed.

• 母が窓を閉めた。My mother closed the window.
• 風で窓が閉まった。The window blew shut in the wind.
• 父が車を止めた。My father stopped the car.
• 車が急に止まった。The car stopped suddenly.
• 駅でスマホを落とした。I dropped my phone at the station.
• 棚から本が落ちた。A book fell off the shelf.

One trap: verbs of movement such as 出る (to leave), 渡る (to cross) and 通る (to pass through) are intransitive, yet they take を for the place left or moved through: 家を出る, "leave the house"; 橋を渡る, "cross the bridge". That を marks a route or a starting point, not an object, so it does not make the verb transitive.

Break down your own sentence

The two members of a pair share a stem and differ in their ending. A handful of ending patterns cover most pairs. They are patterns, not rules: they help you guess and remember, but the same ending can sit on either side, so check each pair once and then learn it.

Two endings are dependable signposts. In a pair, a verb ending in -su (出す, 消す, 落とす, 起こす, 壊す) is the transitive one, and a verb ending in -aru (始まる, 閉まる, 止まる, 上がる, 決まる) is the intransitive one. The -eru ending, on the other hand, tells you nothing by itself: 開ける is transitive, but 割れる and 壊れる are intransitive. A learner who decides that "-eru means transitive" will get half the pairs wrong.

Some verbs sit outside the system. Many have no partner at all: 食べる, 読む and 書く are transitive with no intransitive twin, and 行く and 来る are intransitive with no transitive one. A few work both ways. 開く read ひらく is one of them (本を開く, "open a book"; 花が開く, "a flower opens"), as is 閉じる (目を閉じる, "close your eyes"; ドアが閉じる, "the door closes"). Some する verbs, such as 開始する, can also be used both ways.

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Add ている to an intransitive verb of change and you get the state that the change left, not an action in progress. 窓が開いている is "the window is open", not "the window is opening". 電気がついている is "the light is on". The sentence describes what you see and says nothing about how it came to be.

Add てある to a transitive verb and you also get a state, but one that someone created deliberately and left in place, usually for a purpose. The object of the verb becomes the subject and normally takes が. Only transitive verbs take てある, so the pairs and the two endings line up: intransitive with ている, transitive with てある. With a transitive verb, ている goes back to describing an action: 窓を開けている is "(someone) is opening the window".

• 窓が開いている。The window is open. (A state; nothing about who or why.)
• 窓を開けている。Someone is opening the window. (An action, with を.)
• 電気がついている。The light is on.
• 電気がつけてある。The light has been left on. (Someone switched it on deliberately.)
• ノートに名前が書いてある。The name is written in the notebook. (書く has no partner, but it is transitive, so it takes てある.)

Japanese prefers to describe events rather than actors. Where English says "I broke the glass" or "you left the door open", Japanese often reports what happened to the thing and leaves the person out. This is not vagueness for its own sake: it keeps blame out of sentences where blame would help nobody.

The same habit runs through everyday Japanese. Calling a hotel front desk, you report that the light will not come on, rather than that you cannot turn it on (which suggests your own fault) or that they failed to fix it. Trains announce that the doors are closing, not that the driver is closing them. A host says the tea has "gone in", meaning it is ready.

• すみません、部屋の電気がつかないんですが。Excuse me, the light in my room won’t come on.
• ドアが閉まります。The doors are closing. (A train announcement.)
• お茶が入りましたよ。The tea is ready.
• あ、コップが割れちゃった。Oh, the glass broke. (Casual.)

There is a limit. When you are clearly at fault and owe a real apology, to a customer, a host or a boss, the transitive verb takes responsibility and sounds sincere: お皿を割ってしまいました。申し訳ありません。 ("I broke a plate. I am very sorry.") Using only the intransitive there can come across as evasive. For apologies at work, the forms of keigo matter as much as the choice of verb.

The same event, two sentences. Only the particle after ドア and the verb change, and with them the question of whether anyone did anything.

Both verbs are written with 開 but read differently: 開ける is あける and 開く is あく. The kanji alone will not tell you which one a sentence uses; the kana after it (けた or いた) and the particle before it will.

• Notドアが開けた。

  Butドアが開いた。

  開ける needs a doer and an object. With ドアが it says the door opened something. For the door opening, use the intransitive 開く; for someone opening it, ドアを開けた.

• Not電気を消えた。

  But電気を消した。

  消える is intransitive ("to go out") and cannot take を. Either keep を and use the transitive 消す, or keep 消える and write 電気が消えた.

• Not会議を始まります。

  But会議を始めます。

  The -aru verb 始まる is intransitive. With を you need the -eru partner 始める; otherwise say 会議が始まります, "the meeting starts".

• Not窓が開けている。

  But窓が開いている。

  For the state "is open", use the intransitive verb with ている. 開けている describes someone in the act of opening, and a window cannot be that someone.

• Not電気がついてある。

  But電気がつけてある。

  てある follows only transitive verbs, because it means someone did this on purpose. With the intransitive つく, the state is ついている.

• Not時計が壊されました。

  But時計が壊れました。

  The passive of 壊す means someone broke it, and the listener will ask who. If it simply stopped working, use the intransitive 壊れる.

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Every Japanese sentence you translate or break down in Epsylo shows each verb with its reading and dictionary form, and labels the particle before it as a subject or an object marker. The を-or-が question is answered on the sentence itself: select the verb to see which half of its pair it is and why it fits.

Break down a sentence with a verb pair

What is the difference between 自動詞 and 他動詞?

他動詞 (tadōshi) are transitive verbs: someone acts on an object marked with を, as in ドアを開ける, "open the door". 自動詞 (jidōshi) are intransitive verbs: the subject changes or moves by itself and there is no object, as in ドアが開く, "the door opens".

Is every Japanese verb part of a transitive-intransitive pair?

No. Many verbs have no partner: 食べる and 読む are transitive on their own, and 行く and 来る are intransitive on their own. A few verbs, such as 開く read ひらく and 閉じる, work both ways. The pairs are mostly verbs of change: opening, closing, starting, stopping, breaking, falling.

Why is it 窓が開けてある and not 窓を開けてある?

Both exist. With が, the sentence describes the state you find: the window is open, and someone left it that way. With を, the weight falls on the preparation someone made, and it is often said by the person who did it. For describing a scene, が is the usual choice.

What is the difference between 壊れた and 壊された?

壊れた is the intransitive verb: it broke, with no doer in the picture. 壊された is the passive of the transitive 壊す: someone broke it, and the sentence invites the question who. Use the passive only when you mean that someone did it.

How should I learn the pairs?

As pairs, with their particles, in short phrases: ドアを開ける and ドアが開く, 電気を消す and 電気が消える. Use the ending patterns to remember which is which (-su verbs and the -eru half of an -eru/-aru pair are transitive; -aru verbs are intransitive), and learn the exceptions as you meet them.

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