verb

Ergative Verb

A verb which can be either transitive or intransitive is called an ergative verb. English has many ergative verbs. Examples are: sink, ring, boil, speak, explode, collapse, dissolve etc. • The explosion sank the ship. (transitive) • The ship sank rapidly. (intransitive) • The driver stopped the train. (transitive) • The train stopped suddenly. (intransitive) …

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Active Verbs

An active verb form is one like reads, wrote, broke, is writing or will write. The subject of an active verb is usually the person or thing that does the action, or is responsible for what happens. Jane wrote a story. (Jane (subject) did the action.) We are eating our dinner. John will collect our …

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