Thread: Transitive/Intransitive - to learn/study

Originally Posted by paasikivi

Originally Posted by TATY

я интересуюсь животными. Nothing is actually being done to the animals; they are merely the instrument with which the "Я" interests his or her self.
I hit the dog.
Obviously the dog is the direct object.

Я видел собаки.

Here also nothing is done to the dog, it is just something that I see.

Of course something is being done to the dog, it is being seen. You are taking things too literally. For something or someone to be the direct object of the verb it has to be the thing that the ACTION of the verb is directed at (directly).

It doens't mean the dog actually has to be touched in some way by the subject of the sentence.

What about in English?

You can't say - I saw he (nominative)
you say
I saw him (him is the accusative form of he).

Originally Posted by zomby_pengy

Originally Posted by tricoteuse

I had a discussion with a Russian friend about the verbs учиться and учить, and he explained that the first was intransitive and the second transitive. For учиться he gave the examples Учиться в школе and Учиться петь. But if it's intransitive, how come you still learn something, i.e. "learn how to sing". Isn't that transitive all of a sudden?

Can someone explain all that stuff with the different verbs for "to study" etc? I don't really get the difference.

the suffixes "-ся" and "-сь" usually give the meaning "to oneself". And verbs with these suffixes are intransitive, as they do not take any direct object

They also call them reflexive verbs because they reflex back onto the subject.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by paasikivi

What's the difference?
Я встретил ангела / Я встретился с ангелом?

There is a difference, though it's very subtle and often can be ignored. Roughly speaking "встретился" may imply that you weren't the only one who initiated this event (for example you and angel arranged that meating together).

Just a small correction.