De-Transitive Tenses: A Guide to Verbosity

Warning: This guide is not for the faint of heart. De-transitive tenses are the grammatical equivalents of dark magic. They will confuse, they will bewilder, and they will drive you to madness.

What is a De-Transitive Tense?

A de-transitive tense is a grammatical construct that defies explanation. It's like a linguistic black hole that sucks in all the surrounding words and spits out a sentence that makes no sense.

For example, consider the following sentence:

The cat, who was being chased by the dog, was eaten by the elephant.

At first glance, it looks like a simple past perfect construction. But no! This is a de-transitive tense, my friends. It's a sentence that's been put through a grammar wringer and comes out the other side, mangled and confused.

Types of De-Transitive Tenses

There are many varieties of de-transitive tenses, each more mind-bending than the last: