I must admit that I never thought anything about transitive/intransitive verbs might confound me like that. The problem appeared when I decided to dive into it a bit deeper and then I had to end up losing the thread completely.
Transitive verb, according to the rule, requires subject+verb+object form and should answer the question "What" or "Whom", while intransitive one sticks to "subject+verb" and takes no object, right? So how come in this sentence below "want" is accepted like intransitive verb? Please illuminate me as much as you can because I feel like I'm gradually going crazy.
"I want to be famous".
I(subject) + want(verb) + to be famous(object). What do I want? I want to be famous.
The same could be applied to
"I want you to become famous"
Best Answer
Want is a transitive verb in English and does not make sense if it is used without a direct object.
Both of your examples have direct objects.
"To be famous" is an infinitive phrase and infinitive phrases are a sub-category of noun phrases. Therefore, the entire phrase can be thought of as a noun. As far as English is concerned, in the following sentences,
"cat" and "to be famous" serve the same function.
In your second example, "to be famous" is still the direct object. "You" is something called the indirect object.