Learn English – “He sits on a chair” Is ‘sit’ transitive or intransitive

grammar

He sits on a chair

Is 'sit' transitive or intransitive in this case?
I think it's transitive since the object is chair.

Best Answer

No, it's not transitive in that context. "chair" is part of a prepositional clause that indicates where he sits.

You can check this link from Oxford Learners Dictionary with multiple examples of both the transitive and the intransitive modes but let me quote the definitions:

[intransitive]

to rest your weight on your bottom with your back vertical, for example on/in a chair
She sat and stared at the letter in front of her.

[transitive]

sit somebody + adv./prep.
to put somebody in a sitting position
He lifted the child and sat her on the wall.

Notice that sit is transitive when the subject executes the action over somebody else, a different person.

He sit her child on the chair.

He - subject
her child - object

In your example he sits "himself", that "himself" is a sort of omitted and redundant object, and as you can read in the above definition, that mode is considered intransitive.

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