Perfect Auxiliary of Transitive Verbs

Question

Can transitive verbs only taken “haben” as an auxiliary (ie, as opposed to “sein”)? I am not aware of a counter-example to this.

Possible duplicate of Bilden transitive Verben das Perfekt immer mit "haben"? — David Vogt, Apr 08 '19 at 18:32
@DavidVogt not a duplicate. There’s a community decision to treat questions in different languages not as duplicates. Linking to the other is recommended, though. — Stephie, Apr 08 '19 at 19:42
@DavidVogt how about writing an answer in the asker‘s preferred language? Not all users are fluent enough to understand the answer in German (or speak English well enough in the reverse case). — Stephie, Apr 08 '19 at 19:54
@Aaron Please do not usage the tag standard-german for questions such as this one. Quoting from the linked page: *Only use this tag for questions about standard German as such, e.g., how it is defined, when it is used, or how it relates to other variants of German.
Do not use it to indicate that you want to know about a particular grammatical feature, rule of orthography, or word in Standard German. This is not necessary, as standard German is assumed as the default anyway.* — David Vogt, Apr 08 '19 at 21:51

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:52

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For the great majority of sein-Perfekt-Verben, this is true. There are even verbs which may be used transitively or intransitively, for example fahren:

Er ist in die Waschanlage gefahren.

Er hat den Wagen in die Waschanlage gefahren.

However, German cannot exist without exceptions, as noted in the German-language answer given in the comments:

Der Wagen ist den Dreck dort losgeworden.

Er ist die Akte durchgegangen.

Sie sind einen Pakt mit dem Teufel eingegangen.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:52

Community

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answered Apr 08 '19 at 20:56

Janka

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Would you mind providing a quick definition of "ist-Perfekt-Verben"? Thanks for the answer though! Very helpful. – Aaron Apr 08 '19 at 21:57
Also, I know the auxiliaries can vary between regions so are the exceptions Hochdeutsch? – Aaron Apr 08 '19 at 21:59
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Verbs that build their Perfekt with ist/sein. Nothing special. If you wanted to discuss those in detail, another question would be better. – Janka Apr 09 '19 at 00:15
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Yes, especially Southern German has a lot more verbs that build their Perfekt with sein. – Janka Apr 09 '19 at 00:17

Perfect Auxiliary of Transitive Verbs

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