A Transitive Act is an act that has something besides the actor so closely connected with it that the act can be asserted of this other thing as well as of the actor.

An Intransitive Act is an act that does not have anything besides the actor so closely connected with it that the act can be asserted about it.

Exercise 32

Copy the sentences in which the predicate attribute ex presses transitive action. In how many of these seventeen sentences is the act asserted about some other thing than the actor?

In each sentence of your list draw one line under the name of the actor and two under the name of the other thing about which the act can be or is asserted.

1. The boys are running.

2. Mary broke the doll.

3. The doll was broken by Mary.

,4. The carpenter built a beautiful house.

5. The leaf fell silently.

6. Longfellow wrote this poem.

7. The book was torn by the baby.

8. Alice swept the floor.

9. The child rose at once.

10. The children painted pictures.

11. I passed the store.

12. The procession slowly passed down the street.

13. She passed the bread.

14. Anna made this bread.

15. She heard a faint noise.

16. Many people noticed the strange cloud.

17. The morning glory closes before noon.

18. She closed the conversation abruptly.

19. Edison invented the phonograph.

20. You will hurt the child.

21. She drew a diagram.

22. The child was bitten by the dog.

23. He hesitated an instant.

In three of the twenty-three sentences you should have two lines under the subject. Cross these words out. The other words having two lines under them are called objects.