Of course all acts must have an actor. You have just seen that some acts, such as tearing and breaking, require something besides the actor and that the acts can be asserted about this other thing as well as about the actor. That is, we can say I tore the paper or The paper was torn by me; John broke the chalk or The chalk was broken by John; Miss Brown wrote the letter or The letter was written by Miss Brown.

You have seen, too, that other acts can be asserted about the actor only; that is, we may say I went, but we cannot say that anything was gone by me.

The first kind are called tran-si-tive acts, and the second are called in-tran-si-tive acts.

Exercise 31

In nine of the following sentences the predicate attribute expresses a transitive act which is asserted of the actor. Show in sentences that each of these acts can be asserted about some other thing besides the actor.

1. Mr. Lee sowed wheat last week. (Wheat was sowed by Mr. Lee last week).

2. Henry accepted the gift with thanks.

3. The dressmaker cat the dress with care.

4. The lady smiled at the child.

5. You will enjoy the book.

6. Alice feeds the chickens every morning.

7. The postman brings the mail twice a day.

8. The child walks slowly.

9. The teacher will correct the compositions soon.

10. The class finished the examination at ten o'clock.

11. The superintendent visited us yesterday.

12. The superintendent came to our building yesterday.