flooded

0 all ok, apart from 'today morning'. Not natural. 'this morning'. 0-

0 Shall I know all the differences? how do I use them ? 0-

0If I say,02br
02br
00(a) The street is flooded by water. 02br
02br
00(b) The street flooded after (the) rain / raining / during the rain. 02br
02br
00(c) The street has been flooded in the rain. 02br
02br
00(d) The street is flooded after rain now.0-

0 01blockquote

01cite10Vincent Teo12cite10If I say,12br
12br
11font10(a) The street is flooded by water. 12font10No need to say "by water." It's what we would assume. It simply means that the street is covered by water.12br
12br
11font10(b) The st

0Oooh, ergative verbs! I never knew that term, but I think it's interesting. ( I think, though, in your example, you probably want "The water flooded the streets; the streets flooded" rather than "the streets 01i00were02i00 flooded" -- isn't that just an ordinary passive?)02br
02br
00Have you noticed that after you read "flood" that many times it begin

0 01blockquote

01cite10Grammar Geek12cite11blockquote

11cite20Vincent Teo22cite22br
20Consdier the following:22br
22br
21font20(a) The street is flooded. 22font21font20Water is understood, no need22font20

0 01blockquote

01cite10Khoff12cite10 I think, though, in your example, you probably want "The water flooded the streets; the streets flooded" rather than "the streets 11i10were12i10 flooded" -- isn't that just an ordinary passive?12br
12br
10Thanks, you're totally right. (Ergatives are hardly my specialty!)1

0Barb -- when I was reading your post this morning I told my husband about ergative verbs, because I had never heard the term before. A little later I was standing in our closet trying to decide what to wear to a tea today, and saying "erg!" (which is a general expression of disgust, like "argh" in our house) and my husband said "You're using an ergative verb!"0-

0I think I may have found my new multi-use word! What the erg are you doing? Oh, that erging thing? 050010id2

0 Erg is a good scrabble word too -- it means a unit of energy. By the way, Wikipedia has a good article about ergative verbs -- it discusses their appearance in English, French, Hebrew and Dutch, and it helped me explain to my daughter how an ergative verb is not just any verb that can be either transitive or intransitive. 0-