WaniKani is sometimes inconsistent in what answer it expects for transitive verbs.
It can be either:
- to verb
- to verb something
Sometimes only one option is accepted, sometimes both.
(i added the user synonym after)
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Indeed 
I’ve failed some transitive verbs because I’ve entered “something” where it wasn’t expected (like on your screenshot) and some transitive verbs – because I didn’t enter “something” where it was expected
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This thread might help you with the entire subject.
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I’m sorry, but I think you misunderstand the problem. The problem here is not with understanding which verbs are transitive and which are intransitive. The problem here is that WaniKani requires to add “something” when answering the meaning for some transitive verbs and considers it an error for others. So, we have to add synonyms or keep in memory which transitive verbs require something and which don’t. It would be much better if WK treated all transitive verbs the same way.
Nethertheless, thanks for the link – it is quite useful for distinguishing transitive and intransitive verbs.
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Exactly, I don’t have any trouble understanding the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs and I know that some verbs that are transitive in Japanese aren’t transitive in English and vice versa.
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This has been a problem for more than a decade
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@bokuwaninjadesu and @trunklayer I understood it quite well, that particular thread has a list of all the pairs of verbs which can help seeing all the inconsistencies in one place, which might help remember which is which.
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Thanks for the feedback, I’ll add “to recommend something” to 勧める now. We have updated all the in/transitive pairs to be more consistent up to level 20 but we still need to work on the rest and unfortunately other projects have just taken priority since.
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