transitivo

Transitivo is a term used in linguistics to describe verbs that require a direct object to complete their meaning. A transitivo verb typically acts upon something or someone, answering questions like what or whom after the verb. In many Romance languages, verbs are classified as transitivos (or transitivo) or intransitivos, and some verbs are ambitransitivos, functioning transitively or intransitively depending on context and object presence. For example, in English the phrase “eat an apple” uses a transitive verb, while “sleep” in “I sleep” is intransitive. In Spanish, “comer” is transitivo: “comer una manzana” (to eat an apple). In Portuguese, “ler” is transitivo: “ler um livro” (to read a book). Some verbs can shift transitivity when the sentence voice or object changes, such as “to open” in “open the door” (transitive) versus “the door opens” (intransitive).

In mathematics and logic, the term transitive describes a relation R with the property that whenever aRb and bRc hold, then aRc must also hold. Classic examples include the less-than relation on numbers and the ancestor relation in family trees. Transitivity underpins concepts such as the transitive closure (the smallest transitive relation containing a given one) and transitive reduction (the minimal set of relations that preserve reachability).

Etymology traces the word to Latin transitivus, from transire “to go across,” with the sense of carrying an action over to an object. The concept appears across disciplines, informing syntax, semantics, and formal reasoning about how actions or relationships propagate through structures.