Jisho lists 頼る as being intransitive and WaniKani also shows it as intransitive. Yet the example sentence on WaniKani and some example sentences on Goo use it with the particle を. Can someone explain why this is?
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It would probably help to discuss specific examples. But there are some intransitive verbs that get used with を sometimes, like 触る. So maybe it’s like that, maybe it’s something else.
Maybe it’s somehow connected to this?
道を歩く = “to walk ON the street”; 何々を頼る = to rely ON something
The fact that those translations both use “on” would just be a coincidence, if that usage is acceptable. The most common way to say rely on is に頼る.
を with movement verbs is its own thing.
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I was actually just thinking of a similar example. When reading I’ve seen things like 歩道を歩く. Even though 歩く is intransitive, it can take the particle を to state what you’re walking on. Seems like another case of the same thing here, even if we wouldn’t think of it that way in English.
Sorry, I should have quoted the WaniKani sentence.
彼の事を頼っていいものか決めかねています。
I’ve been wondering if I should trust him.
@okyrylchuk @SleepyOne This sentence and verb doesn’t seem related to the 歩道を歩く case.
There’s also 渡る, like in 橋を渡る.
Yeah, verbs that express some kind of movement can do that. 触る and 頼る don’t though.
So any thoughts on those verbs that don’t have to do with movement?
It seems like を頼る is pretty ok to use, it has 400k hits on google when に頼る has 600k. But yeah, the on preposition in english shouldn’t be related to this.
Right, I’m just stating that there are intransitive verbs that can take を to link the word or phrase that they’re referencing, the 歩く instance being one example.
There’s some further discussion on 頼る here.
触る has its own nuances when used with を. I presume 頼る would be similar, but that would mean it can’t be generalized from 触る.
More links -「Cを頼る」「Bを頼りにする」「Aに頼る」are all ok to use but the meaning is different for each one
Thanks everyone. The article that @MissMisc and @SleepyOne posted is helpful for explaining this specific use case. From what @Leebo was saying about 触る, there are clearly other verbs that can take を that aren’t related to the movement use case. It would be really helpful if there was a general rule for these uses as well though.
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I thought you were talking about the game VVVVVV at first. Great game.
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Is that next in the FF series
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