F. Relating to or denoting a case of nouns that identifies the doer of an action as the object rather than the subject of a verb.
F1. Ergative verbs are both transitive and intransitive. (e.g. I boiled a pan of water. (Transitive: N + V + N) vs. The pan boiled. (Intransitive: N + V))
F2. Common ergative verbs are: begin, break, change, close, drop, crack, dry, end, finish, grow, improve, increase, move, open, shake, start, stop, tear, turn (e.g. I broke the glass.)
F3. Many verbs to do with ‘cooking‘ are ergative verbs: bake, boil, cook, defrost, freeze, melt, roast (e.g. You should roast the meat at 200 degrees centigrade.)
F4. Verbs to do with ‘vehicles’ are often ergative: back, crash, drive, fly, reverse, run, sail, start, stop (e.g. I’m learning to fly a plane. The plane flew at twice the speed of sound.)
F5. We use some ergative verbs with only a few nouns: catch (dress, coat, clothes, trousers etc.); fire (gun, pistol, rifle, rocket); play (guitar, music, piano, violin, CD, DVD etc.); ring (bell, alarm) (e.g. She caught her dress on a nail. Her dress caught on a nail.)