was/were

RebeccaLee April 2, 2015 20:23

Thanks guys. I actually figured it out myself after a lot of Internet research. It turns out that "died" is an INTRANSITIVE verb. INTRANSITIVE verbs are verbs that do not have objects like 'sleep' 'cry' 'occur' 'happen' 'go' etc. unlike verbs that can have objects like 'hit' (a ball), 'eat' (a sandwich) etc. So, because intransitive verbs do not have objects, they cannot be used in the passive voice which is what I was doing with "500 was died". There are some verbs that are ALWAYS intransitive (like the ones I mentioned earlier) while a lot of verbs can be both.
Phew!!! It took me a while but glad I figured it out ;)

selma March 29, 2015 21:10

Thank you for this topic and the explanations.

Nimzaf March 29, 2015 16:52

Thanks lady Anne,I also learnt something from your comment.
Thank you so much.

Lady Anne March 29, 2015 13:05

Hello Rebecca,

I hope I can be of big help to you. Here is my simple explanation:

"500 were killed" ("killed" here is an adjective describing what happened to the 500)

"500 were died" ("were" and "died" are both verbs and this is a wrong conjugation of verbs. You can use "dead"(adjective) instead of "died" (500 were dead) to describe the 500 or you can write "500 died" which is also correct.

Feel free to contact me if you are still confused.

A738a > Lady Anne February 6, 2016 22:09

How can 'killed' in a passive sentence with a to be word in its past tense form be an adjective?

Naji March 28, 2015 21:25

I would like to say that the first is wrong while the second is wright.

500 were killed; it is not normal for people to pass away according to other's will.

500 were died; it is the voluntary and God will to let them pass away, we could say this is the life expectancy. Sure whether there is no illness or health problems.

A738a > Naji February 6, 2016 22:09

right*

Oh my god...

I have no words.

ESL Discussion

was/were

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