[Vocabulary] an avalanche

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dilodi83

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What verbs do you generally associate with an avalanche?

The ones I have found are these two: to break off and to come off. But which one is more used in this kind of sentence?

- An avalanche has broken/come off the mountain.

Thank you very much.
 

emsr2d2

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What verbs do you generally associate with an avalanche?

The ones I have found are these two: to break off and to come off. But which one is more used in this kind of sentence?

- An avalanche has broken/come off the mountain.

Thank you very much.

We don't usually follow "avalanche" with a verb. We simply say "There has been an avalanche" or "There was a terrible avalanche yesterday on Mount Cristobal".
 

dilodi83

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We don't usually follow "avalanche" with a verb. We simply say "There has been an avalanche" or "There was a terrible avalanche yesterday on Mount Cristobal".

Got it, but if you should define the action that an avalanche does, which would you use? Do you think there's in English a verb to mean the movement done by an avalanche?
 

emsr2d2

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I suppose it might "cascade" down a mountain, but you would have to use all those words.

An avalanche cascaded yesterday in Switzerland. :cross:
An avalanche cascaded down a mountain in Switzerland yesterday. :tick:

Note that I am not saying that this is what we naturally say. I would expect to see "There was an avalanche in Switzerland yesterday".
 

Rover_KE

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The avalanche swept away everything in its path.
 

Raymott

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The avalanche swept away everything in its path.
That's true, but that's not really a verb that describes the essential nature of an avalanche. I agree with ems; we don't have one.

By the way, dilodi, what's the verb you use in Italian?
 

Rover_KE

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That's true, but that's not really a verb that describes the essential nature of an avalanche.

OK. 'The avalanche swept down the mountain, destroying everything in its path.'
 

emsr2d2

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Raymott

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OK. 'The avalanche swept down the mountain, destroying everything in its path.'
I was thinking along the lines of what other natural disasters do. Volcanoes erupt; bush fires/wild fires burn, a flood inundates. That is, does an avalanche do anything intransitive - a verb that simply means that it happens. An avalanche sweeps? Maybe. In the spirit of volcanoes erupting, what do earthquakes do?
The point I was making was that transitive verbs describing the effects these natural disasters can cause are not verbs essential to the disaster itself. Yes [STRIKE]earthquakes[/STRIKE] avalanches can sweep down mountains, kill people, bury homes, knock over trees, etc.
 
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dilodi83

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That's true, but that's not really a verb that describes the essential nature of an avalanche. I agree with ems; we don't have one.

By the way, dilodi, what's the verb you use in Italian?

In Italian we say "staccarsi" which is kind of "to come off": Una valanga si è staccata dalla montagna, which would be: An avalanche has come off from the mountain...but I do not know if it sounds well in English.

Let me know :)
 

emsr2d2

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In Italian we say "staccarsi" which is kind of "to come off": Una valanga si è staccata dalla montagna, which would be: An avalanche has come off from the mountain, but I do not know if it sounds [strike]well[/strike] good in English.

Let me know​. :)

It does not.
 

Barb_D

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For what it's worth, this was an interesting thread. It's interesting to think that in one language an avalanche "breaks off" but in another it does not.
 
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Jaskin

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hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker;

[...] Volcanoes erupt; bush fires/wild fires burn, a flood inundates. That is, does an avalanche do anything intransitive - a verb that simply means that it happens. An avalanche sweeps? Maybe. In the spirit of volcanoes erupting, what do earthquakes do?
[...]

An avalanches and earthquakes hit or strike.
Following the 'sweep down the mountain' construction I would put forward:
roll down
thunder down
crash down
tumble down
strike down

What about take off ?

Cheers
 
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Raymott

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In Italian we say "staccarsi" which is kind of "to come off": Una valanga si è staccata dalla montagna, which would be: An avalanche has come off from the mountain...but I do not know if it sounds well in English.

Let me know :)
"Staccarsi" sounds like "detach", which is fair enough.
 
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dilodi83

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"Staccarsi" sounds like "detach", which is fair enough.

yes, you're right. But it's really strange that in Italian an avalanche can detach from a mountain and in English can't. Anyway this is what I love most in learning English...its difference from my native language and I also like the different points of view that two speakers (English and Italian) can have and have about verbs and, generally speaking, about actions and how to describe them.
 
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