Question

In the sentence "The beggar sat down while eating an apple", is the verb "sat" transitive or intransitive?

Answer 1

Intransitive

Explanation:

A transitive verb is a verb that has a Direct Object. To find the DO, we ask, "What is the verb acting on?" We look at the verb, sat. "What is sat acting on?" or "What is the beggar sitting on?" It can't be the Prepositional phrase, so all we have is, The beggar sat down. Is down what the beggar is sitting on? The answer is no. Instead, down is an adverb, describing how he/she sat. In this case, it is informing the direction he sat in.

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