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Study Resource: List of Japanese verbs by transitivity

By: Sayumi Suzuki

Associated Articles

These activities are part of our Japanese Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

Japanese verbs that are exclusively transitive or exclusively intransitive

While many Japanese verbs have a transitive and an intransitive version, some verbs are only ever or only ever . Here are some common ones:

Exclusively Transitive
Japanese	English
飲む[nomu]	to drink
読む[yomu]	to read
書く[kaku]	to write
話す[hanasu]	to write
話す[hanasu]	to speak
忘れる[wasureru]	to forget
殴る[naguru]	to punch
褒める[homeru]	to praise
置く[oku]	to place

Exclusively Intransitive
Japanese	English
行く[iku]	to go
泣く[naku]	to cry
泳ぐ[oyogu]	to swim
走る[hashiru]	to run
死ぬ[shinu]	to die
座る[suwaru]	to sit

Tip

Did you notice that the Japanese verbs 読む[yomu](to read) and 書く[kaku](to write) are exclusively transitive? When you use these verbs to discuss reading and writing in Japanese, you always need to include what you read or wrote!

Intransitive

❌ 私は読むのが好きです。

Watashi wa yomu no ga suki desu.

I like to read.

Transitive

✅ 私は本を読むのが好きです。

Watashi wa hon o yomu no ga suki desu.

I like to read books.

Japanese verbs that are both transitive and intransitive

While many Japanese verbs have a transitive version and an intransitive version, in some cases the same form of the verb can be used as a transitive verb or as an intransitive verb, without any difference in form. Here are a few examples of verbs like this.

Transitive and Intransitive
Japanese	English
開く[hiraku]	to open
閉じる[tojiru]	to close
触れる[fureru]	to touch
吹く[fuku]	to blow (on)

Tip

The verbs 開く[hiraku] and 開く[aku] both mean "open" and are spelled the same way, but they're used a little differently.

開く[hiraku] is usually used for things that open in three dimensions, such as flower blossom or a casement window.
開く[aku] is used for things that open two dimensions, such as sliding doors (left-right) or bottle caps (up-down).

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