Joy to the world, the lord is "COME" ????

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LittleBitFunny

#307406 Tue, 26 Dec 06 02:26 PM

Joy to the world, the lord is come...

Why is "COME"

not "COMING ?"

And if it correct, what is the meaning and when we have to use this structure ?

Thank you very much.

LittleBitFunny

Joined on Sat, Dec 16 2006

New Member (05)

Grammar Geek

#307410 Tue, 26 Dec 06 02:47 PM

Interesting - I always sang it as "The lord HAS come," but a quick Google search shows me that "IS come" is more common.

It's a slighly odd (perhaps old?) use of "is." Because it's a Christmas carol, you sing it about Jesus' birth. Since he has been born, he has (now) come.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,583)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Cool Breeze

#307428 Tue, 26 Dec 06 04:20 PM

Is come just reflects the German ist gekommen. In German the equivalent of is must often be used as the auxiliary of the perfect tense.

Cheers
CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

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Tenses, Auxiliaries

Philip

#307436 Tue, 26 Dec 06 04:45 PM

Cool Breeze wrote:
Is come just reflects the German ist gekommen. In German the equivalent of is must often be used as the auxiliary of the perfect tense.

Cheers
CB

I always thought it was a remnant of the French (Norman Invasion, 1066). There is a handful of verbs in French conjugated with "to be" rather than "to have" in the passé composé (past) tense. Rise, [to be] born, arrive, leave, go (all "coming and going" verbs) are some examples. We also sing "He is risen" and we allow for "he is gone" as well as "he has gone".

Philip

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Verbs, Tenses, Auxiliaries

Marius Hancu

#307452 Tue, 26 Dec 06 05:54 PM

In many old English texts, "to be" is used as an auxiliary verb instead of the contemporary form with "to have."

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

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Verbs, Auxiliaries

CalifJim

#307475 Tue, 26 Dec 06 07:29 PM

what is the meaning, and when [do] we have to use this structure ?

The Lord is come means The Lord has come. As explained above, the auxiliary for many verbs used to be BE, but these have all changed to HAVE in modern English.

Never use this structure. It is a structure from centuries ago. Use only modern English!

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

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"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Verbs, Auxiliaries

Cool Breeze

#307482 Tue, 26 Dec 06 08:06 PM

Hi Philip

There has been vacillation between be and have as the perfect auxiliary in the Germanic languages - that's what I really meant to say in my previous post - but to my knowledge no one has ever maintained this usage derives from French. As a matter of fact, French had little effect on English grammar in terms of grammatical structures although the number of loan words is remarkable.

One of the structures derived from French is the of-genitive, which most scholars believe is based on the de-structure of the French language. And of course the word order of e.g. court martial reflects French grammar.

The only tenses Old English had were the present tense and the preterite (past tense); in other words, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th century didn't take the perfect, pluperfect and the future tense with them from the continent. Smile [:)]