_Transitive_ means _passing over_, and so all
verbs that represent an act as passing over from a doer to a receiver are
called +Transitive Verbs+. If we say _Cornwallis was captured by
Washington_, the verb is still transitive; but the object, _Cornwallis_,
which names the receiver, is here the subject of the sentence, and not, as
before, the object complement. You see that the object, the word that names
the receiver of the act, may be the subject, or it may be the object
complement.
All verbs that, like _fall_ in _Leaves fall_, do not represent the act as
passing over to a receiver, and all that express mere being or state of
being are called +Intransitive Verbs+.
A verb transitive in one sentence; as, He _writes_ good English, may be
intransitive in another; as, He _writes_ well--meaning simply He _is_ a
good _writer_. A verb is transitive only when an object is expressed or
obviously understood.
_Washington captured Cornwallis_. Here _captured_ represents the act as
having taken place in past time. _Tense_ means _time_, and hence this verb
is in the past tense. _Cornwallis captured, the war speedily closed_. Here
_captured_ is, as you have learned, a participle; and, representing the act
as past at the time indicated by _closed_, it is a past participle.
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