Meaning of "I almost drowned"

[nancy]

Test No. incompl/elem-27 "Sailing", question 8

Exactly, in fact I almost ..........

(a) downed
(b) dropped
(c) dripped
(d) drowned

Test No. incompl/elem-27 "Sailing", answer 8

Exactly, in fact I almost drowned.

Correct answer: (d) drowned
_________________________

hi,

i wanted to ask if this sentence should be passive or now.
i haven't seen this usage of drowned before.
does 'drown' have another meaning?

thnx in advance
nancy

[Alan]

Hi Nancy,

You can use this verb actively and passively. Here I almost drowned means I almost died by being suffocated in water and is used intransitively.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Read the Signs...

[Blazya]

what`s the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs ?

[Maggie]

Hi everyone and Alan,

When I learn the term, "drowned", I'd like to know how to use it correctly. So I made a sentence as follows:

If you read the newspaper, you can see many kids go to seas which are very dangerous to swim and they drown because they don't think that the places are so dangerous to swim. It happens again and again. In my opinion, I've no idea how come their parents let their children go to this kind of unsafety place to swim. Sigh...

My question is that I should use past tense or present tense for the term "drown" and for this situation, I mean the sentence. Should I say "they didn't think that ...." or "they don't think that..."?

Thanks a lot.

Maggie^^
_________________
In my view,the more mistakes someone else corrects me,the more I could learn.
And welcome to my blog: http://0rz.tw/793HL

[Maggie]

Oh..I got a star at this moment. It's interesting. And it's just like what Torsten told us via the mail. I think encouragements are very very important for learners whatever they learn English, other languages or other new things. Thanks so much, Torsten.
_________________
In my view,the more mistakes someone else corrects me,the more I could learn.
And welcome to my blog: http://0rz.tw/793HL