Anyone have a trick to figuring out which verb is what when you know the Kanji? Everything I've read so far just explains the difference and what they are, but I am looking for a way to recognize the verb.
I do understand I can see if there is a direct object attached, thus making it a transitive, but I want to be able to recognize the verb.
I have Genki II here and I think the way they explain it isn't so good, Tae Kim doesn't have much either.
I don't think there is any rule that you can go by to recognize whether a verb is transitive or intransitive just by looking at the verb itself, but I find that are usually a few hints that you can guess what type of verb it is.
Here are some basic guidelines that I use to guess what it is if I don't have a dictionary at hand.
[list] [li]The shorter verb of the pair tends to be intransitive.[/li] [/list] Ex. 開ける (あける - transitive) vs. 開く (あく - intransitive)
[list] [li]Verbs that end in える tend to be transitive and ones that end in ある tend to be intransitive.[/li] [/list] Ex. 助ける (たすける - transitive) vs. 助かる (たすかる - intransitive); 止める (とめる - transitive) vs. 止まる (とまる - intransitive)
[list] [li]Verbs that end in あす tend to be transitive.[/li] [/list] Ex. 伸ばす (のばす); 寝かす (ねかす)
Again, these are patterns that I've noticed; they are not rules that you can take to heart (I haven't verified these patterns, so I don't know if they are right 100% of the time). Anytime you see a verb though, you'll usually see it in context, so you should be able to determine what type it is just by looking at the sentence.
