Esperanto · Chapter 17 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Transitivity: which verbs take an object
Every root is permanently transitive or intransitive, and English is no guide: the burn/stop/begin pairs, the helpi class, the plaĉi verbs that reverse the subject, and reading tr/ntr in a dictionary.
The short version
A root is transitive or intransitive for life
English lets almost any verb take an object or not as the sentence requires, and Esperanto lets none of them. Bruli is what the house does, bruligi what the boy does to the paper; halti is what the car does, haltigi what the driver does. Which side a root sits on is vocabulary rather than rule: komenci is transitive with komenciĝi derived, while halti is intransitive with haltigi derived. Droni is the one to get right, since dronigi means you killed him.
La domo brulas; la knabo bruligas la paperon.
Plaĉi means to be pleasing, so the book leads
Mi plaĉas la libron claims that you are pleasing to a book with opinions. La libro plaĉas al mi is how you say I like the book, and the same reversal runs through manki (al mi mankas mono), sufiĉi, aparteni, okazi and ŝajni: the thing takes the subject slot and the person goes after al. It is a specific list rather than a rule about feelings, because ĝeni and interesi are ordinary transitive verbs. If you want the person as subject, ŝati and bezoni are waiting.
La libro plaĉas al mi; al li mankas tempo.
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