Intransitive verb types
Compare activity arbeta with change-of-state falla. Participles such as försvunnen and impersonal passives such as Det arbetas illustrate different patterns. Learn the restrictions on each construction; not every verb passes a simple yes/no test.
How It Works
Start With The Construction
An intransitive use has no direct object. A verb may also have transitive uses, so a label need not classify every occurrence of a word. Unergative activity uses typically have an agent-like subject; unaccusative uses typically present the subject as undergoing a change or event. Semantic roles are not the same as active and passive voice.
Participles: A Useful Tendency
Many intransitive result verbs form an adjectival past participle: ett fallet träd, den försvunna katten. A bare activity participle does not generally describe the person who performed the activity: en man som har arbetat is the ordinary way to identify a man who has worked, rather than en arbetad man.
This is not an infallible test. Some change verbs resist the corresponding adjective, and prefixes or modifiers can license forms from activity verbs: nybadad describes someone who has recently bathed. Check the actual word and construction rather than banning every participle associated with an activity.
Impersonal Passive Versus Presentation
Agentive activity uses can occur in an impersonal s-passive: Det dansades hela natten, Det arbetades sent in på natten. The people performing the activity are not named as the subject. This does not license an s-passive from every intransitive verb.
Det anlände många gäster instead presents an arriving subject; många gäster is not an object left behind by passivization. Do not turn this into Det anländes många gäster. Similarly, Det dog en soldat i kriget is an active presentational sentence.
Causative Pairs
Compare Isen smälter with Solen smälter isen. The first use is intransitive; the second is transitive and causative. Do not call the transitive construction unaccusative. Other pairs use different verbs: Ballongen sprack versus Barnet spräckte ballongen involves spricka and spräcka, not two inflections of one verb. These patterns are clues about argument structure, not a ban on activity verbs appearing with an object in another construction.
Perfect Tense
Modern Swedish uses ha plus supine with both types: har arbetat, har fallit. Expressions such as är kommen survive in restricted uses with a current-state perspective. Do not infer that an older auxiliary difference caused the other syntactic distinctions; each construction requires its own description.
Examples (5)
- Pojken hoppar.
The boy jumps.
Word by Word: The boy jumps.
In the ordinary activity reading here, hoppa presents the boy as carrying out the action. Another verb use or added result phrase may have a different analysis.
- Äpplet föll.
The apple fell.
Word by Word: The apple fell.
Falla(to fall) is an unaccusative verb. The subject, 'äpplet', is a theme that undergoes the event; it doesn't initiate it. - Här är den försvunna katten.
Here is the disappeared (missing) cat.
Word by Word: Here is the disappeared cat.
Försvunnen is an established adjectival participle from försvinna. It takes the definite form försvunna in den försvunna katten.
- Det arbetades sent in på natten.
Work was done late into the night. / People worked late into the night.
Word by Word: It was-worked late in on the night.
Test 2: The unergative verb
arbeta(to work) can form an impersonal s-passive. - Ballongen sprack. / Barnet spräckte ballongen.
The balloon burst. / The child burst the balloon.
Word by Word: The balloon burst. / The child burst the balloon.
Spricka is intransitive in the first sentence; spräcka is a distinct transitive causative verb in the second. Sprack and spräckte are their respective past forms.
Common Mistakes
Using bare simmade as an adjective for the swimmer.
Jag såg den simmade flickan.Jag såg flickan som simmade.For the intended meaning the girl who was swimming, use flickan som simmade. The bare form simmade does not work as this attributive adjective. This example does not rule out all activity-based participles: forms such as nybadad have their own licensing.
Forming an impersonal passive with an unaccusative verb.
*Det döddes en soldat i kriget.Det dog en soldat i kriget.Use dog, the active past of dö, when presenting the soldier who died. Döddes is not the required past form, and en soldat is the presented subject, not the object of an impersonal passive.
How It Connects
Related Patterns
- -d/-t/-dd/-ttPast Participle (Adjectives)
Established result participles such as fallen and försvunnen illustrate a tendency. Participle availability depends on the particular verb and modifiers; nybadad shows why an absolute ban on activity-based forms fails.
Level 2 - -s (passiv)-s Passive Voice
Agentive intransitive activities can form impersonal passives such as det dansas. This differs from active presentation, as in det kom en buss; do not mechanically add -s to any intransitive verb.
Level 3 - har + SupinePerfect Tense
Modern perfect tense uses ha plus supine with both activity and change verbs: har arbetat, har fallit. Restricted vara-plus-participle expressions are not evidence that auxiliary choice caused every other distinction.
Level 2 - detAnticipatory Det
Compare impersonal passive Det arbetas with active presentation Det kom en buss. In the latter, en buss is the presented subject. This nominal presentation is related to formal-subject constructions but differs from extraposing a clause or infinitive.
Level 3 - Verb + adjective result
Unaccusative verbs often describe a change of state, which is a type of result. Resultative constructions (e.g.,
Level 6måla dörren grön- paint the door green) also focus on the result of an action, linking the concepts semantically.
Learn Next
Patterns that build on this one.
Practice Intransitive verb types in Bubblegum
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