Intransitive Verbs

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Intransitive Verbs

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A lot of verbs by their very nature have no object, simply a subject. These are known as intransitive verbs. In Russian these verbs normally use the reflexive form. Here are some examples.
Улыбаться - To smile.
Смеяться - To laugh.
Надеяться - To hope, to wish.
Even when these verbs form sentences there will not be an accusative case. Depending on the verb, a different case or preposition will generally be used. This can sometimes be hard to predict, so when you see or hear these words being used, try to remember the sentence structure.
For example in the following sentence the dative case is used to indicate ‘to/at’.
Она мне улыбается - She is smiling at me.
Sometimes a preposition is used.
Она смеётся над вами - She is laughing at you

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