Learn English – Is “fished” a transitive verb in “I fished around in the pocket for the keys”

prepositionstransitive-verbs

In English it doesn't sound natural to say "I fished a fish." You would say "I caught a fish." However, in the instances where I can think of using fish as a verb, it must take a preposition (around, for, in, about).

I went fishing in the lake

good

I went fishing the lake

not good

Does "fish" act as a transitive verb? In English, is there a grammatical term for verbs that require a preposition? Can these verbs still be transitive?

I found this entry in an online dictionary, but honestly I have never heard of the verb fish taking what appears be an object. Let's fish the creek just sounds wrong to my ears.

Best Answer

In some of its senses, fish is a transitive verb, as your dictionary entry attests:

He fished a coin out of his pocket for the boy. ("a coin" is the object)

To count as transitive, a verb must take an object. In your example sentence

I fished [around] [in my pocket] [for my keys].

.. the bracketed constituents are called not objects but "prepositional phrases". "Around" is a complement, or part of the phrasal verb "fished around", according to different grammarians.

"In my pocket" is an adjunct of place, "for my keys" is an adjunct of purpose.

Verbs that do not take direct objects are called "intransitive".

She smiled. (no object)
She smiled at me. (no object; "at me" is a complement)

Many verbs are intransitive in one sense but transitive in another sense, like to fish. So say "I fished a fish" would be ungrammatical because in this particular sense the verb is intransitive.

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