This work carries a critical review of the traditional model of grammar, specifically the Grammars by Cunha e Cintra (2001) and Rocha Lima (2007). Through these analysis, we seek to prove that the manner how the concept of verb complementation, as well as the notions of complementary and accessory terms and of transitivity, have been traditionally presented in grammar and didactic books present a number of gaps and incoherencies that have been causing difficulties in the teaching/learning of our mother tongue [Portuguese]. Usually verbal transitivity is related to the idea if there is or not a completion of the information transmitted by the verb, without considering the circumstances and meaning in which the verb is being used or the nature of the element(s) connected to it. We can thus state that which is being presented to students as the grammar of the Portuguese language is a set of rules that often doesn’t take into consideration the reality of linguistic facts. Aiming to find an analytical way that could help us to solve the problem, we studied some more recent works that partially or totally escape from the traditional orientation, such as Moderna Gramática Portuguesa by Bechara (the 1999 edition onwards), Gramática de usos do português by Moura Neves (2000), the Master’s thesis by Maria Eliana Duarte Alves de Brito (1986) and Gramática de Valências by Busse e Vilela (1986). Departing from a functionalist orientation and taking as basis the principle of dependency grammar, the goal of this work is to demonstrate that two poles of analysis must be taken into consideration in the study of phrases: syntax and semantic. Being the verb the central element of a phrase, it’s the verb that determines the number of empty-spaces, besides of the morphosyntatic and semantic properties of the actants that convey these empty-spaces. In this way, the distinction between direct and indirect object of traditional grammar comes up as insufficient, being thus necessary to identify a greater number of types of actant. Besides, we were able to distinguish, through the analysis of the verb as central element, which terms must be considered actants (complements) or circumstantial (adjuncts).