I am having difficulty understanding transitive and intransitive verbs. Most explanations say that a transitive verb takes a "direct object" and an intransitive verb takes an "indirect object" such as a person or thing to which an action is being performed.
OK, let's take as an example the transitive verb "lieben" and the intransitive verb "helfen". Both have no "direct object" but someone who is being loved or helped, yet "Ich liebe Dich" takes the accusative and "Ich helfe Dir" takes the Dative. Why?