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I ordered a CD from an online music store. My confirmation email reads "your order has shipped." English is not my first language, and this strikes me as odd. Shouldn't it be a passive-voice sentence, i.e. "your order has been shipped"?

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    The company's wording is fine. You might want to check out the sister site for English Language Learners; questions as basic as this one would be better received at that site.
    – J.R.
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 11:50
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    I would just like to point out that, even as a native English speaker, I have always found "your order has shipped" to sound a little odd.
    – justin
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 12:30
  • I, also a native speaker, have never found it odd. It is just another example of the protean nature of English words.
    – Robusto
    Commented Mar 14, 2013 at 12:33
  • (non native speaker) it does sound odd to me because it is meant to be "The order has been shipped" - passive voice. Despite the given answer I do believe it is a result of simplification and thus - is incorrect.
    – Rossitten
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 20:45

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I don't know why someone downvoted, 39 - I'm having quite a job finding corroboration in online dictionaries for the following.

Some verbs in English have a dual usage, where a transitive usage may be switched to an intransitive one, the direct object becoming the subject:

Bill closed the door - the door closed

Phil broke the window - the window broke

Jill cooked the ham - the ham cooked

Qwill melted the ice in a pan - the ice melted

Will sold his Monet - Will's Monet sold for over $12 million

Such a usage is called the ergative usage.

I'd distinguish this from the middle voice, a similar construction where a property of state rather than an action is being described:

Plastic windows break too easily.

Ice melts at 0 degrees C.

Battery-operated PIR alarms are selling for $12 at the hardware store.

I'm sure that the verb ship can be used ergatively, but it doesn't appear in Wikipedia's lengthy list, and the following is the only support I've found for my analysis:

ship: To go aboard a ship ... (AHDEL)

(obviously, to ship = to send by ship is a well-known transitive usage)

I'd add that the meaning of 'ship' (transitive) has been broadened to 'send by, or as if by, ship', and so that of 'ship' (intransitive) has followed, being broadened to 'be sent off'.

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    To corroborate your analysis. One of the examples for transitive/intransitive use of ship in Macmillan's dictionary is: Version 4.0 should ship in a week or two. And a page on Macmillan's website. Your very good answer was written prior to this, so of course you couldn't find it in your research. A very late upvote from me, but I've just hit on this question/answer.
    – None
    Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 11:14
  • I'd call these unaccusative uses rather than ergative.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 12:30
  • Yes; it depends on the grammar you bought, curiousdannii. Possibly CGEL? Does it distinguish the punctive (the house sold within two days) from the durative (these CDs sold for $16 back in the day) ?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 14:01
  • I've been trying to understand this concept for years! Here it is: a good explanation of the phenomenon and the key terms "ergative" and "middle voice".
    – WaterMolecule
    Commented Jul 19, 2021 at 21:46

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