Meaning & use
burned down
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Meanings
verbintransitive
was destroyed or badly damaged by fire, especially a building
Grammar: The subject is the thing that burned; no object is needed: The old hotel burned down. Use burn down when the whole building is lost, not for a small fire.
Patterns
- something burned down
- be burned down
The family bakery burned down last winter, and they are still looking for a new place.
By the time firefighters arrived, the barn had already burned down.
Several homes burned down in the wildfire, but no one was hurt.
verbtransitive
destroyed a building or other structure completely with fire
Grammar: Takes an object naming the thing destroyed: They burned down the old school. The subject is usually a person, a group, or a fire.
Patterns
- burn down something
- burn something down
- someone burned down something
Police say someone burned down the empty warehouse on purpose.
The soldiers burned down the village before they left.
A single candle burned down the whole cabin.
Word forms
| base form | burn down |
|---|---|
| third person singular | burns down |
| present participle | burning down |
| past tense | burned down |
| past participle | burned down |
| British past tense | burnt down |
Common combinations
- burned down to the ground
- The church burned down to the ground in less than an hour.
- completely burned down
- The shed was completely burned down when we got home.
- burned down in a fire
- Their house burned down in a fire caused by old wiring.
- be burned down by someone
- The barn was burned down by vandals last summer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- go up in flames
- More dramatic and often used in news reports; it stresses the flames rather than the total destruction.
- be destroyed by fire
- More formal and neutral, and it can describe things other than buildings.
- raze
- A formal word meaning to destroy a building completely, often deliberately, not necessarily by fire.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: burned down or burnt down? burned down or burn down?
burned down vs burnt down
This is the British past form of the same verb. Burned down is standard in American English and also acceptable in British English.
burned down vs burn down
This is the base form used for present, future, and after to or a modal. Burned down is only for the past or after have/had.
Practice
The old theater _____ in 1998, and the city built a park on the site.
Choose one answer.
The sentence refers to a completed event in the past, so the past tense burned down is needed. Burns down is present tense and would not match the past time phrase in 1998; burning down would need a helping verb like was; burn down is the base form and cannot stand alone as the past tense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “burned down”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.