 Re: burn down vs. be burnt down
Here are some google results:
The house was burnt down 3670 results
The house burnt down 970 results
but
The house was burned down 8820 results
The house burned down 27300
Since burnt is typically BE and burned is more common in AE, perhaps The house was burnt down sounds more natural in BE and The house burned down sounds better in AE.
But it's just a supposition. Anyway, I'm getting more and more curious to know whether my theory is correct or not.
P.s: Of course, BE stands for British English and AE means American English.
Last edited by Englishlanguage; 18-Jul-2007 at 08:40.
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