3.9 Talking about events which involve only the subject: intransitive verbs

When you are talking about an action or event which does not involve anyone or anything other than the subject, you use an intransitive verb.

• Her whole body ached.
• Such people still exist.
• My condition deteriorated.

Many intransitive verbs describe physical behaviour or the making of sounds.

• Bob coughed.
• Vicki wept bitterly.
• The gate squeaked.

3.10

Here is a list of verbs which are normally used in intransitive clauses and which usually or often have no adjunct after them:

• ache, advance, arise, arrive, bleed, blush, cease, collapse, cough, crackle, cry, decay, depart, deteriorate, die, digress, dine, disappear, disintegrate, doze, droop, economize, elapse, ensue, erupt, evaporate, exist, expire, faint, fall, falter, fidget, flinch, flourish, fluctuate, gleam, growl, happen, hesitate, howl, itch, kneel, laugh, moan, occur, pause, persist, prosper, quiver, recede, relent, rise, roar, scream, shine, shiver, sigh, sleep, slip, smile, snarl, sneeze, snore, snort, sob, sparkle, speak, squeak, squeal, stink, subside, sulk, surrender, swim, throb, tingle, vanish, vary, vibrate, wait, waver, weep, wilt, work, yawn

A few of these verbs are used transitively in idioms or with very specific objects, but they are intransitive in all their common meanings.