An active verb is transitive when the action passes over from the subject or nominative to an object; as, Richard strikes John.

Transitive means passing.  In this sentence the action of the verb strikes is transitive, because it passes over from the nominative Richard to the object John; and you know that the noun John is in the objective case, because it is the object of the action expressed by the active-transitive verb strikes.  This matter is very plain.  For example:  Gallileo invented the telescope.  Now it is evident, that Gallileo did not exert his powers of invention, without some object in view.  In order to ascertain that object, put the question, Gallileo invented what?  The telescope. Telescope, then, is the real object of the action, denoted by the transitive verb invented; and, therefore, telescope is in the objective case.  If I say, The horse kicks the servant—­Carpenters build houses—­Ossian wrote poems—­Columbus discovered America—­you readily perceive, that the verbs kick, build, wrote, and discovered, express transitive actions; and you cannot be at a loss to tell which nouns are in the objective case:—­they are servant, houses, poems, and America.

The nominative and objective cases of nouns are generally known by the following rule:  the nominative does something; the objective has something done to it.  The nominative generally comes before the verb; and the objective, after it.  When I say, George struck the servant, George is in the nominative, and servant is in the objective case; but, when I say, The servant struck George, servant is in the nominative case, and George is in the objective.  Thus you perceive, that Case means the different state or situation of nouns with regard to other words.

It is sometimes very difficult to tell the case of a noun.  I shall, therefore, take up this subject again, when I come to give you an explanation of the participle and preposition.

Besides the three cases already explained, nouns are sometimes in the nominative case independent, sometimes in the nominative case absolute, sometimes in apposition in the same case, and sometimes in the nominative or objective case after the neuter to be, or after an active-intransitive or passive verb.  These cases are illustrated in Lecture X. and in the 21 and 22 rules of Syntax.

ACTIVE-INTRANSITIVE VERBS.

An active verb is transitive, when the action terminates on an object:  but

An active verb is intransitive, when the action does not terminate on an object; as, John walks.