Ergative verb

In 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, transitive, ditransitive; compare to ergative case, nominative case.