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In the English language, an ergative verb is a verb whose action affects the subject, rather than the object, of the verb. Another way to describe this is that a normal verb's patient is its object, whereas an ergative verb's patient is its subject. Often, but not always, ergative verbs take no direct object. Some verbs can act as either a regular transitive verb or an ergative verb.
Examples of ergative-only verbs:
- I think.
- I see.
- I understand.
- I experience.
Examples of verbs that can be ergative or transitive:
- open
- The door opens.
- John opens the door.
- eat
- I ate.
- I ate a hamburger.
See also: intransitive verb, transitive verb, ditransitive verb; compare to ergative case, nominative case.
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