VERBS & PRONOUNS Transitive & intransitive verbs…& verbs like gustar

Anyone who has read my notes or articles before will know that I don’t often get technical – but sometimes there’s no avoiding it! Technical grammar terms are nothing to be afraid of though.

INTRANSITIVE verbs
So, we know that a verb is an ‘action’ word. It’s a word which tells us what someone, or something, is doing. Some verbs are simple ‘doing’ verbs, such as ‘arrive’, ‘go’, ‘sit’. These verbs don’t need anything to act upon – we just ‘do’ them.  They don’t need a ‘direct object’. These are ‘intransitive’ verbs.
Pablo always arrives late – Siempre llega tarde Pablo. (Intransitive – no direct object).

TRANSITIVE verbs
Other verbs need something, or someone, to ‘transfer’ the action to. Something which the verb is being done TO. It needs a ‘direct object’. These are the ‘transitive’ verbs. One example is ‘to want’, querer. You have to ‘want’ something, or to do something, querer algo.  ‘Want’ on its own just doesn’t say anything. Another is ‘to have’, tener. If we use the verb ‘tener’ we will always ‘have something’. 
Javi has a new car – Tiene un coche nuevo Javi. (Transitive – coche is the direct object. The verb ‘tener’ is acting ON the coche).

Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.

One example is ‘to sing’, cantar. We can say that someone is singing, without saying what, so we can use it with or without a ‘direct object’.
Ana sang Christmas carols with the choir last Friday – Ana cantó villancicos con el coro el viernes. (Transitive – villancicos is the direct object. The verb is acting ON the villancicos)
Ana sings all the time – Ana canta todo el tiempo. (Intransitive – no direct object).

GUSTAR type verbs…

& others which take the indirect object (IO) pronoun.

Many verbs will habitually be used with the indirect object (IO) pronoun. With these verbs, the pronoun is essential, it must always be used.

Remember, that’s the pronoun which replaces the noun in the sentence ‘FOR’ which or whom the action is being done. The most common of these are ‘gustar type verbs’. Also, the subject of the sentence  – who or what is doing the verb, will follow the verb.

Gustar means ‘to be pleasing’, so ‘’A la mujer, le gusta correr’’ really means ‘’To the woman, it’s pleasing to run’’.

‘’A tu perro, le gusto yo’’ is ‘’I’m pleasing to your dog’’

Aburrir means ‘to be boring’, so ‘’A los niños les aburren las clases de lengua’’ really means ‘’To the children, the language classes are boring’’.

‘’A mi hermana y a mi nos aburre el golf’’. ‘’To my sister & I golf is boring’’.

Llamar means ‘to be called by’, so ‘’Me llamó mi novio’’ really means ‘’I was called by my boyfriend’’

‘’A ti Pablo, te llamaré mañana’’ is ‘’You will be called by me tomorrow, Pablo’’

Of course, a dictionary will probably say that gustar = like, aburrir = bore & llamar = call. The problem is, if we simplify the meanings that much, we’re in danger of saying the wrong thing or having the wrong person doing the verb.

Take the verb ‘preocupar’, which means ‘to cause worry’.

‘’A Andrea le preocupa su hermano, pero a él, no le preocupa ella’’.

That means, in natural English, ‘¡Andrea worries about her brother, but he doesn’t worry about her’’.
If you over simplify the meaning of the verb, to ‘to worry’, you might be tempted to say ‘’Su hermano preocupa Andrea, pero él no preocupa ella’’ which unfortunately would mean absolutely nothing to a Spanish speaker, or worse, they might try to guess what you mean & think that the mother doesn’t worry about her son, but he worries about her.
The simple addition of the IO pronouns & the personal A, & it all becomes clear.

‘’A Andrea le preocupa su hermano, pero no le preocupa ella a él’’.

‘’To Andrea, her brother causes worry, but she doesn’t cause worry to him’’.

There are other verbs which take the IO pronoun, which might not be ‘gustar type verbs’ per se, but the use is the same. The pronoun will be used, whether the person is mentioned or not.

Verbs of ‘communication’ such as the following, take the IO pronoun when the object is a person, whether a direct object pronoun is present or not:

‘’Le dijiste a Tere que querías llevarla al espectáculo’’.

 ‘’You told Tere that you wanted to take her to the show.’’

Note that here, we use both the direct (la) & the indirect (le) object pronoun to refer to Tere. She is the direct object with llevar.

‘’Ella no les ha regalado nada para Navidad, pero sus vecinos le han regalado una cajita de polvorones’’

‘’She hasn’t gifted anything to them for Christmas, but her neighbours have gifted her a box of polvorones’’