Ergative case

Okay, let's imagine playing a game where you have lots of different toys to play with. Some toys you can use all by yourself, like a ball that you can bounce, throw, and catch. Other toys need another person to play with, like a puzzle that you have to solve together.

The way we talk about using toys can also be different depending on if we are using them alone or with someone else. For example, if you have a ball and are playing with it by yourself, you might say "I'm bouncing the ball." But if you and a friend are playing with the ball together, you might say "We're throwing the ball back and forth."

This is kind of like how we use the ergative case in some languages. The ergative case is a way of showing that the subject of the sentence is doing something to an object, but only when the subject is doing it alone. When the subject is doing the action with someone else or to someone else, a different case is used.

For example, let's say you are playing with a toy car by yourself. You might say "I pushed the car." Here, "I" is the subject and "pushed" is the verb, and the car is the object. But if you and a friend are both pushing the car together, you might say "We pushed the car." Now "we" is the subject, and "pushed" is the verb, and the car is still the object.

So in some languages, like Basque or Hindi, they use the ergative case to show that the subject is doing the action alone. For example, in Basque you might say "Gaztea muturra bultzatu nuen," which means "I pushed the car" but with the ergative case marking on "I" to show that I am doing it alone.

Overall, the ergative case is a way of marking the subject in a sentence to show who is doing an action, and how they are doing it, depending on if they are doing it alone or with someone else. Just like how you might talk about playing with different toys depending on if you are playing alone or with a friend.