Transitivity Pairs in Japanese (自他動詞): Intransitive vs. Transitive

Transitivity pairs in Japanese (自他動詞) are systematic two-verb sets. They share one kanji root but divide the work of describing change: an intransitive member for "the door opens" and a transitive member for "I open the door".¹ The canonical pair 開く / 開ける is one of roughly three hundred such alternations a learner meets across N4 grammar.¹²

Overview

What 自動詞 and 他動詞 mean literally

自動詞 (jidōshi) reads literally as "self-move verb": 自 = self, 動 = move, 詞 = part of speech. 他動詞 (tadōshi) reads as "other-move verb": 他 = other.³

The traditional terms name who moves or changes. In 自動詞, the subject undergoes the change by itself. In 他動詞, the subject acts on something else.³⁴

The same 自 / 他 contrast underlies older Edo-period grammatical labels: onozukara shikaru ("happens thus by itself") and mizukara shikasuru ("does so by oneself"). The modern terms inherit this contrast.⁵

自動詞じどうしは自然しぜんに起おこる出来事できごとを表あらわす。³
"An intransitive verb expresses an event that occurs naturally."

他動詞たどうしは動作主どうさしゅが対象たいしょうに働はたらきかけることを表あらわす。³
"A transitive verb expresses an agent acting on a target."

Why English speakers find Japanese transitivity harder

English uses one verb root for both members of many alternations: the door opens / I open the door, it broke / I broke it. Japanese normally expresses the two members as distinct verb forms that share a single kanji root (開く / 開ける, 壊れる / 壊す).¹⁵

Where English hides the alternation under one form, Japanese makes the speaker choose a form. That choice carries meaning: agentive versus spontaneous.¹⁵

自然しぜんにドアが開ひらいた。⁶
"The door opened by itself."

私わたしがドアを開あけた。⁶
"I opened the door."

Jacobsen identifies a core set of roughly three hundred systematic transitive / intransitive pairs in the modern language. Matsumoto's revised list extends the inventory while retaining Jacobsen's classification logic.¹²

JLPT placement and prerequisites

The 自動詞 / 他動詞 distinction is an N4 grammar point in mainstream JLPT-aligned references, and Genki II introduces the pairs at Lesson 18.⁷⁶ It assumes you already know the three verb classes (一段, 五段, irregular) and the が / を particle contrast.⁷⁶

The Japan Foundation Can-do descriptors at N4 include understanding short descriptions of physical states (a closed shop, a lit-up sign). These depend on the 自動詞 / 他動詞 distinction.⁸

The 〜てある companion sits between N4 and N3

The resultative 〜てある construction discussed later in this article is classified as N4 by Bunpro and Genki but as N3 by the Makino & Tsutsui intermediate dictionary.⁶⁹⁷ Either label is defensible. The pairs themselves are uncontroversially N4.

Why Japanese has paired verbs

The spontaneity vs. agency split

Jacobsen analyses the paired-verb system as the morphological reflex, or form-level trace, of a causative-inchoative alternation. The intransitive member describes the inchoative event ("come to be in state X"). The transitive member describes the causation of that event ("cause to come to be in state X").¹

Hayatsu shows that 有対他動詞 (paired transitives) systematically focus on the resultant state of the object. By contrast, 無対他動詞 (unpaired transitives) focus on the manner of the action. Paired transitives so often have intransitive partners because both members describe the same end-state, viewed from opposite sides.¹⁰

Japanese also marks "things happening without an agent" (自発, spontaneity) as a recognized semantic category. Spontaneity appears both in vocabulary (intransitive members of pairs) and in grammar (the spontaneous reading of -(ら)れる, and the -える verbs 見える and 聞こえる).⁵⁴

有対動詞 (paired) vs. 無対動詞 (unpaired)

A 有対動詞 has a transitivity partner sharing the same root: 壊れる / 壊す, 開く / 開ける.¹⁰¹¹ A 無対動詞 lacks a partner. Hayatsu and the NINJAL basic-verb handbook cite intransitive-only verbs such as 死ぬ, 降る, 走る, 行く. They also cite transitive-only verbs such as 食べる, 飲む, 殴る, 祈る, 読む.¹⁰¹²

Paired verbs are a clear minority of the total verb stock. Even so, they contain a disproportionate share of high-frequency change-of-state verbs: open, close, break, begin, end, gather, attach, fall, drop.¹⁰¹¹

One root, two morphological derivations

Both members of a pair descend from a shared Old Japanese / Proto-Japonic root. They use derivational suffixes that are no longer productive but remain visible in the modern language. Wiktionary, citing standard Old Japanese reconstructions, gives 始まる from Proto-Japonic pansimara (intransitive) alongside the transitive 始める from the same stem.¹³

Jacobsen's classification treats the suffixes (-aru, -eru, -reru, -su, -asu, -osu, -yasu) as different markers of the same inchoative / causative meanings across different verb-class environments.¹

Paired-verb alternation is the default way to describe everyday change-of-state events. The NINJAL basic-verb handbook treats the alternation as core vocabulary at the beginner level.¹²

The recurring morphological patterns

Five recurring shapes cover the large majority of high-frequency pairs. The grouping below follows Jacobsen's classification of "core" pairs and is cross-checked against Shibatani and Matsumoto's revised list.¹⁵²

Patterns are predictive, not absolute

Bunpro and the Makino & Tsutsui dictionary both warn that transitivity must ultimately be learned pair by pair. The patterns below cover most cases, but the exceptions are real.³⁷

Pattern 1: -aru (intransitive) / -eru (transitive)

This is the largest single pattern. Jacobsen counts it as the most numerous class in his core set.¹ The intransitive member is a 五段 verb in -aru. The transitive member is a 一段 verb in -eru and shares the kanji root.¹²

授業じゅぎょうが始はじまる。⁶
"Class begins."

先生せんせいが授業じゅぎょうを始はじめる。⁶
"The teacher starts the class."

ドアが閉しまる。³
"The door closes."

母ははがドアを閉しめる。³
"My mother closes the door."

Other high-frequency members of the pattern include 集まる / 集める, 決まる / 決める, 止まる / 止める, 見つかる / 見つける, 上がる / 上げる, 下がる / 下げる, 変わる / 変える, and 高まる / 高める.¹²

Pattern 2: -ru (intransitive) / -su (transitive)

The intransitive ends in plain -ru (a 一段 verb in -eru or -iru, or a 五段 verb in -ru). The transitive replaces the final syllable with -su.¹⁵

子こどもが起おきる。⁶
"The child wakes up."

母ははが子こどもを起おこす。⁶
"The mother wakes the child."

鍵かぎが落おちる。³
"The key falls."

私わたしは鍵かぎを落おとす。³
"I drop the key."

Other pairs in the pattern include 出る / 出す, 消える / 消す (note that the intransitive 消える is -eru, not -aru, despite the appearance), 直る / 直す, 戻る / 戻す, 残る / 残す, and 渡る / 渡す.¹²

Pattern 3: -reru (intransitive) / -su (transitive)

The intransitive ends in -reru (always a 一段 verb); the transitive ends in -su.¹⁵

木きが倒たおれる。²
"The tree falls over."

風かぜが木きを倒たおす。²
"The wind knocks the tree down."

コップが壊こわれる。⁶
"The cup breaks."

弟おとうとがコップを壊こわす。⁶
"My little brother breaks the cup."

Other pairs include 汚れる / 汚す, 離れる / 離す, 流れる / 流す, and 隠れる / 隠す. A small irregular subset has -ru instead of -su: 売れる / 売る, 折れる / 折る.¹²

Pattern 4: -u (intransitive) / -eru (transitive)

The intransitive is a bare 五段 verb (-ku, -tsu, -mu, -bu, -gu, -ru). The transitive is the corresponding 一段 verb in -eru.¹⁵

ドアが開あく。⁶
"The door opens."

私わたしがドアを開あける。⁶
"I open the door."

子こどもが立たつ。³
"The child stands."

母ははが旗はたを立たてる。³
"My mother stands the flag up."

Other pairs include 進む / 進める, 並ぶ / 並べる, 続く / 続ける, 育つ / 育てる, and 片付く / 片付ける.¹²

Pattern 5: Suppletive and irregular pairs

Pairs that resist the four patterns above form a residual class. Jacobsen treats some as historically transparent and others as suppletive, where independent roots converged on shared meanings.¹⁵

人ひとが部屋へやに入はいる。⁶
"A person enters the room."

母ははが鞄かばんに本ほんを入いれる。⁶
"My mother puts the book into the bag."

富士山ふじさんが見みえる。⁴
"Mt. Fuji is visible."

隣となりの音おとが聞きこえる。⁴
"I can hear the sound from next door."

Other entries include 消える / 消す (which fits pattern 2 in form but is sometimes grouped here for semantic reasons), 乗る / 乗せる (pattern resembles 4 but is sometimes treated as irregular), and 教わる / 教える (a -waru / -eru irregularity).¹²

見える / 聞こえる are not potential forms

見える and 聞こえる are intransitive verbs that already carry a spontaneous-perception nuance ("comes into view / earshot of itself"). They are distinct from the potential forms 見られる and 聞ける, which mark the speaker's ability rather than whether the thing is spontaneously available to be seen or heard.⁵⁴

A short pattern-detection checklist

A handful of heuristics, or quick rules of thumb, drawn from Jacobsen and the Makino & Tsutsui dictionary, will resolve most unfamiliar pairs at a glance:¹³

1. Does the verb end in -su? If yes, it is almost certainly transitive.¹³
2. Does the verb end in -aru? If yes, it is almost certainly intransitive, and its partner ends in -eru.¹
3. Does the verb end in -reru and have a -su counterpart? Then -reru is the intransitive member.¹
4. Does the verb end in -eru with a bare 五段 partner? The -eru member is the transitive (pattern 4 above).¹⁵
5. Does the sentence already contain を marking an object? Then the verb in that clause must be transitive.³¹⁴

The heuristics fail on a small but visible set of exceptions: 見える and 聞こえる are -える but intransitive; 切れる / 切る has a -reru intransitive paired with a -ru transitive; 帰る is intransitive despite ending in -ru. The dictionary is the final authority on any specific pair.¹³

How to use them in a sentence

Particles: が with 自動詞, を with 他動詞

The most reliable visible signal of transitivity is the particle that marks the changing entity. A 自動詞 takes が on the entity that undergoes the change. A 他動詞 takes が on the agent and を on the entity acted upon.³¹⁴

The same noun (a door, a window, a class) appears as the が-subject of the intransitive and as the を-object of the transitive. Its role in the event stays constant. What changes is whether an external agent is named.¹³

電気でんきがつく。⁶
"The light comes on."

私わたしが電気でんきをつける。⁶
"I turn the light on."

The 〜ている state contrast: ongoing action vs. resulting state

The 〜ている form does different work depending on which member of the pair it attaches to. 他動詞 + ている describes an action in progress: 開けている = "is in the process of opening (it)".⁶⁹ 自動詞 + ている, with a change-of-state verb, describes the resulting state: 開いている = "is in an open state".⁶⁹

The 〜ている auxiliary is itself a te-form construction.

父ちちが冷蔵庫れいぞうこを開あけている。⁶
"My father is opening the refrigerator."

冷蔵庫れいぞうこが開あいている。⁶
"The refrigerator is open."

Resultative 〜てある (transitive only)

The 〜てある construction attaches only to transitive verbs. It describes a state that resulted from a prior intentional action.⁶⁹¹⁵ The contrast with 自動詞 + ている is subtle but important: the intransitive form describes the state with no agent implied. The 〜てある form describes the same state and implies that someone produced it on purpose.⁹¹⁵

ドアが開あいている。⁶
"The door is open." (no agent implied)

ドアが開あけてある。⁶
"The door has been left open (on purpose)."

An illustrative subset of pairs

Five to ten representative pairs, grouped by pattern

The table below anchors the five patterns with one or two pairs each. The examples are drawn from the same sources as the morphological discussion above.¹⁵²⁶³⁴

Kanji (intr / tr)	Kana (intr / tr)	Pattern	Gloss (intr / tr)
開く / 開ける	あく / あける	4 (-u / -eru)	open / open something
閉まる / 閉める	しまる / しめる	1 (-aru / -eru)	close / close something
始まる / 始める	はじまる / はじめる	1 (-aru / -eru)	begin / begin something
出る / 出す	でる / だす	2 (-ru / -su)	come out / take out
落ちる / 落とす	おちる / おとす	2 (-ru / -su)	fall / drop
倒れる / 倒す	たおれる / たおす	3 (-reru / -su)	fall over / knock down
壊れる / 壊す	こわれる / こわす	3 (-reru / -su)	break / break something
入る / 入れる	はいる / いれる	5 (irregular)	enter / put in
見える / 見る	みえる / みる	5 (suppletive-like)	be visible / see

Forward reference to the comprehensive list

A companion reference article cataloguing the top fifty paired verbs groups them by the five patterns. The dictionary and Jacobsen's appendix remain the fuller scholarly inventories.¹²

Good to know

Defaulting to the transitive form for accidents

English speakers often reach by reflex for the transitive 壊した when describing a personal accident. Japanese discourse, however, strongly prefers the intransitive form to keep the agent out of focus. Hayatsu shows that paired transitives foreground the agent's responsibility, while their intransitive partners foreground only the resultant state.¹⁰¹

The blame-deflecting choice for "I broke the computer" is the intransitive form:

パソコンが壊こわれました。¹
"The computer broke."

対 in 有対動詞 reads tai, not tsui

The kanji 対 has two on-readings: タイ ("opposition, correspondence, ratio") and ツイ ("a pair of, set of"). In the grammatical compounds 有対動詞 and 無対動詞, the reading is タイ. The term means "verb that has a corresponding partner," not "verb that is one of a pair".¹⁶ The ツイ reading is reserved for counter-like uses such as 一対 (ittsui, "one pair").¹⁶

The "-su is transitive, -aru is intransitive" mnemonic

Of Jacobsen's core pairs, the -su ending is overwhelmingly the transitive member, and -aru is overwhelmingly the intransitive member. The Makino & Tsutsui dictionary lists these as the two most reliable visible cues.¹³

The cue that does not hold up is "-eru is transitive". 見える, 聞こえる, and 消える are all intransitive despite ending in -える. Use the heuristic only with its counter-examples attached, or it will overgenerate.⁵⁴

When the same kanji has more than two readings

The 大辞林 dictionary records 開く as two distinct verbs sharing the same kanji: あく (五段, intransitive only) and ひらく (五段, both intransitive and transitive depending on context).¹⁶ When を marks an object, only the ひらく reading is valid. So 本を開く reads hon o hiraku, never hon o aku.¹⁶¹⁷

The meaning split is also useful to internalize: あく / あける tends to describe "an opening is made" (sliding doors, mouths, eyes). ひらく / ひらける tends to describe "something unfolds outward" (flowers, books, an umbrella, the heart).¹⁶¹⁷

See also

• Japanese Transitivity Pairs List: 50 自他動詞 Pairs (Reference)
• Japanese Verb Groups: 一段, 五段, and Irregular
• The が Particle: Subject Marker (and More)
• The を Particle: Direct Object
• The Te-Form in Japanese: Construction Rules

References

Footnotes

1. Jacobsen, Wesley M. The Transitive Structure of Events in Japanese (Studies in Japanese Linguistics 1). Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers, 1992. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹

2. Matsumoto, Yo. "Appendix B: List of additional transitivity pairs in Japanese (a revision of Jacobsen 1992)." In Pardeshi, P. and Kageyama, T. (eds.), Transitivity and Valency Alternations: Studies on Japanese and Beyond. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110477153-018/html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Makino, Seiichi and Tsutsui, Michio. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times, 1986, entries 自動詞 and 他動詞. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

4. Iwasaki, Shoichi. Japanese (Revised Edition) (London Oriental and African Language Library). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2013, ch. 5–6. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Shibatani, Masayoshi. The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, ch. 7 (verb morphology and voice). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

6. Banno, Eri et al. Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II. 3rd ed. Tokyo: The Japan Times, 2020, Lesson 18 (Transitivity Pairs and 〜てある). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

7. Bunpro. "他動詞・自動詞 (JLPT N4)." https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/transitive-intransitive-verbs (limitation) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Japan Foundation. JLPT Can-do Self-Evaluation List (N5–N1). Tokyo: Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services. https://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/candolist.html ↩

9. Makino, Seiichi and Tsutsui, Michio. A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times, 1995, entry 〜てある. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

10. Hayatsu, Emiko (早津恵美子). 「有対他動詞と無対他動詞の違いについて: 意味的な特徴を中心に」. 言語研究 (Gengo Kenkyū) 95 (1989): 231–256. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/gengo1939/1989/95/1989_95_231/_pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

11. 早津恵美子. 『現代日本語の使役文』. Tokyo: ひつじ書房, 2016 (paired-verb statistics and 有対 / 無対 terminology). ↩ ↩²

12. 国立国語研究所 (NINJAL). 「日本語学習者用基本動詞用法ハンドブック」(Handbook of Basic Verb Usage for Japanese Learners) project page. https://www.ninjal.ac.jp/research/cr-project/project/b/youhoujiten/ ↩ ↩²

13. Wiktionary. Entry 「始まる」. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A7%8B%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8B (limitation; etymology citation only) ↩

14. 庵功雄 ほか. 『日本語文法ハンドブック』. Tokyo: 3A Network, 2000 (自動詞・他動詞). ↩ ↩²

15. Tofugu. "〜てある for When Something Is Done (and Left That Way)." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/tearu/ (limitation) ↩ ↩²

16. 松村明 (ed.). 『大辞林』. Tokyo: Sanseidō, entries 開く (あく / ひらく), 開ける, 対 (たい / つい). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

17. Tofugu. "あける, あく, ひらける, and ひらく: Differences Between Four Different 'OPEN's in Japanese." https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/akeru-aku-hirakeru-hiraku/ (limitation) ↩ ↩²