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This paper examines how English L2 users understand the scope of English transitive verbs beyond their basic c-selected elements. Through an in-class survey including 13 intransitive and 17 transitive verbs with similar external patterns, 102 L2 users were asked to identify the grammatical properties within a given structural context. Investigating three key research questions verified that recognizing the properties of individual verbs is essential, basic noun elements are acquired more readily than NP-equivalents, and clauses show a higher acquisition rate than phrases. Statistical analysis using SPSS, which compared English majors and non-majors, drew new findings: first, among the 30 sentences analyzed, there were 10 moderate or minor differences in verb recognition. Second, regarding verb type, while use of intransitive verbs exhibited significant differences, use of transitive verbs showed moderate differences. Overall, the study found that understanding the individuality of verbs is more critical than distinguishing verbs solely by (in)transitivity when identifying NP-equivalents.