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Taka Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Kill

People in that country died because of the heavy rain.

Question 1: If 'died' were replaced with 'were killed', would it still sound natural?
Question 2: If it were 'the heavy rains' instead, what would be the difference in meaning? No difference?
  

Top answer

Question 1: If 'died' were replaced with 'were killed', would it still sound natural? Not really. The restatement is: People in that country were killed by the heavy rain.

— AlpheccaStars

  • Question 1: If 'died' were replaced with 'were killed', would it still sound natural?
  • Not really.
  • The restatement is: People in that country were killed by the heavy rain.
  • Question 2: If it were 'the heavy rain s ' instead, what would be the difference in meaning?
  • There were several rainstorms, perhaps over a period of time.
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4 Answers
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Question 1: If 'died' were replaced with 'were killed', would it still sound natural?
Not really. The restatement is:

People in that country were killed by the heavy rain.

Question 2: If it were 'the heavy rains' instead, what would be the difference in meaning? There were several rainstorms, perhaps over a period of time. The singular, rain, in
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Question 1: If 'died' were replaced with 'were killed', would it still sound natural?
Not really. The restatement is:
People in that country were killed by the heavy rain.

This wouldn't really work either?

People in that country were killed as a result of the heavy rain.

Question 2: If it were 'the heavy rains'
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TakaThis wouldn't really work either?People in that country were killed as a result of the heavy rain.
The passive voice really needs an explicit agent here to dispel ambiguity.
Without an agent, we assume that people did the killing.
People in that country were killed (by other people).

If you convert to active voice, that would
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