Not a Linguist

I am not a linguist. I am a lover of words with no appreciation for how words were created, formed, or morphed into their current state ..... I love them flat on a page, ready to be whisk me off to another time or place, I love them in a soft sing-song melody as they perform through rhythm and rhyme. I love words that fall off unknown lips through Audible, telling me stories of great and unfathomable adventures. I love that words can mend, they can give courage and strength simply by the timing, meter, and measure in which they arrive. 

With all that weirdness out of the way, let it be clear that the above loving relationship does not extend to the diagramming of said words, it does not cover the semantics or syntax of these words in which I think are the Bees Knees. Matter of fact, each time I come across either of those "S" words, I have to look them up....again! This week I decided that I would not let my inability to appreciate the study of language stop me from learning. I chose two "things" in which to study, to learn, to gain knowledge of, basically to become  Lord and Master of! Why only two? I am also a realist and I know my limits!

I could not "get" transitive and intransitive verbs. First I felt like the extremely small paragraph in our book did not have enough meat in it, there was nothing for me to latch on to. I read and re-read it about 35 times and came to the conclusion that perhaps we were supposed to bring some type of linguistic knowledge, or knowledge of verbs or maybe just knowledge in general, to be able to "understand" what was being said. It was clear, I had none of the three. 

I'm working (basically) with this information:

Verbs that are followed by objects are transitive verbs.

Verbs that are not normally followed by objects are intransitive verbs. 

Verbs can be both transitive and intransitive.

First Problem:

Any object? If the verb is followed by ANY object it is transitive?

**For a sentence to have a transitive verb then it must have a subject, a verb AND an object.

 (yes any object)

The test for this is Directly after the verb ask yourself Whom or What? If you can answer either of those then it is a transitive verb. 

Examples:

I baked a pizza. *What did you bake? A Pizza <---- the object 

Baked is a transitive verb

She rode a bike. *What got rode? A Bike <---- the object

Rode is a transitive verb 

Second Problem: 

"NOT - NORMALLY" followed by objects? I feel like that should be clearer, don't you? 

Intransitive does not have a direct object**

Examples:

I laughed. *What or Whom did you laugh? Subject and verb but NO object.

Laughed is intransitive. 

The book fell. *What or Whom did the book fall onto? Subject and verb but NO object.

Fell is intransitive. 

Both:

The choir sings the National Anthem. *What did the choir sing?

 They sang the National Anthem <---- the object

**Sings is Transitive

The bird sings. *What did the bird sing? NO object

**Sings is Intransitive

After creating this little tutorial I was still a little unsure but, I feel like it helps to relate 

Transitive = Transition

Transition means to move or change and for a verb to be transitive it has to move or change something (the object) if it doesn't then it is intransitive.