doubts on preposition?

Question

He is training on her accents.
I am in love with him.

In the above examples both the verbs training and love are followed by prepositon on and with. are these verbs intransivite?

Answer 1

Well, the verb "to train" has several senses, so you need to think about which sense you are using. Compare these samples:

+He is training her on her accents. (t)
+He is training himself on her accents. (t)
+He is training on a stationary bike. (i)
+He is training his dog to stay in the yard. (t)
+He is training right now. (i)

So it looks to me like "to train" can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on the meaning. But in most uses of this verb, "to train" is transitive.

According to my dictionary, the verb "to be" (as in the phrase "to be in love") is always intransitive, even when it is a linking verb, as in the phrase "She is my friend."

Now, this may cause some confusion, because as you know, the word "is" in your first example ("He is training on her accents.") is in fact a form of "to be." However, in the first example, "train" is the main verb, and "is" as a form of "to be" is an auxiliary very that creates the progressive tense.

Good luck with your grammar studies. This is not easy stuff!