Definition of Action Verbs: Can be categorized as either transitive or intransitive.
Transitive Action Verbs: Followed by a direct object, which receives the action of the verb.
Finding the Direct Object: Ask "what" or "whom" the verb is acting on.
Example: Joan walked her dog.
Analysis: What or whom did Joan walk? Answer: her dog.
Hence, walked is a transitive verb because it has a direct object.
Intransitive Action Verbs: Do not have a direct object.
Example: Joan walked around the block.
Analysis: What or whom did Joan walk? Answer: No direct object exists.
Thus, walked is intransitive.
Additional Examples
Noteworthy Fact: English actor Daniel Day-Lewis won several major awards for his principal role in the film Lincoln.
Example of Multi-Subject Construction: Three London-based students, Rodrigo García González, Pierre Paslier, and Guillaume Couche, won a design award for their waste-reducing edible water bottle.
Hair - A Counterculture Classic
Premiere:Hair, the first rock musical of its kind, premiered on Broadway in the late 1960s.
Sentence Structure and Prepositions
Intransitive Action with Prepositional Phrase: If an action verb is followed immediately by a prepositional phrase, it is always intransitive.
Reasoning: The noun in a prepositional phrase is never classified as a direct object.
Linking Verbs
Definition: Linking verbs always function as intransitive.
Function: Connect the subject to an adjective or noun in the predicate.
Example: Joan was a nurse for twenty-five years before her retirement.
Analysis: In this case, the verb was is a linking verb and the noun phrase a nurse renames the subject, Joan.