Nona
 Nona The Brit wrote: |
| Yes Paco I am perfectly aware that 200 years ago the construction 'is arrived' was acceptable. So what? |
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If you are so, why did you give such a message as below? If you had written in previous post just that "is arrived" is not incorrect but rather an archaic collocation, I would have respected your great knowledge of English and thanked to your comment.
| Nona The Brit wrote: |
'They arrived at the decision' not 'they are arrived the decision'. Same thing as not finding 'He is arrived' acceptable.
I wonder if this error stems from a mishearing of He has arrived - this would normally be pronounced He's arrived - which now I'm sitting here saying it does actually sound exactly like 'He is arrived'. You get the same effect with she's (she has) arrived and it's (it has) arrived. In addition, people seeing it's/he's/she's might be assuming that it is a contraction of is instead of has. |
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| Nona The Brit wrote: |
| I think you enjoy deliberately confusing things in this way as you have done it before. If you wish to talk about 200 year old useages then you should point that out and not give all the learners the incorrect information that it is still currently in use. |
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I am disappointed! Why can't you understand my intention? My first message here was an answer to the question by StephenLai as below.
| StephenLai wrote: |
In the sentence, ...they were prepared to impose..., they indicates the members of Congress, right?
Then, the members of Congress should prepare to impose, not were prepared to impose.
It shouldn't be passive. Why does the sentense go this way? |
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I took StephenLai wanted to know why an intransitive verb can take a form like a passive voice and still the sense is like an active voice. To such a question, I thought, it would be better to explain the historical construct of "perfect tense with 'be' as the auxiliary".
Please know we ESL students are often agonized by English collocations that cannot be explained by current grammar rules. You native speakers might say "That usage is exceptional, just memorize it". But we ESL students (at least me) can hardly memorize exceptions without knowing why such exceptions occur. I suppose you native speakers, who unconsciously have acquired such exceptional collocations, never understand this difficult situation of ESL students.
paco