Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs require two participants: the agent and the patient. 'Trans' means 'across': the action passes from the agent (the doer of the action) to the patient (the 'done-to' or receiver of the action).

For example:

Kei te patu te tama i te kurī.
The boy is hitting the dog.

In the example the agent of the action is ‘te tama’ (the boy) and the patient of the action is ‘te kurī’ (the dog).

Note that it makes little sense to say ‘The boy is hitting.’ In English or Māori you are left asking ‘Hitting what?’, therefore it is an incomplete sentence and needs a patient to complete it. This is characteristic of transitive verbs. ‘Hitting what?’ ‘Hitting the dog - the boy is hitting the dog.’

Transitive verbs can be used in the following ways:

• Active: I patu te tama i te kurī. (The boy hit the dog.)
  
• Passive: I patua te kurī e te tama. (The dog was hit by the boy.)
  
• The Agent Emphatic: Nā te tama te kurī i patu. (It was the boy that hit the dog.)
  

In commands, transitive verbs take the passive form.