Dee in MI Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 This week in CW Homer, my son was given the independent clause "Your brother is come." to diagram. The teacher's guide says that "is come" is a verb phrase. Hmmm. Could "come" not be a predicate adjective? Frankly, I hate the models that come from the KJV. I don't think that my fifth grader needs to be parsing early 17th century language! Dee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen in VA Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 Come is a verb, is is a helping verb. Come could only be a predicate adjective if it describes brother, but that does not make sense. A brother can be kind, cute, ridiculous, late, aggravating, etc., but I don't think a brother can be come. That's my take on it anyway. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in GA Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 which is why "is come" would be a verb phrase. It can be frustrating to parse KJV, but on the other hand, it makes us think about the words, and in the process, get to know our modern tongue better, right? I do have to agree with you, though, that sometimes it's just a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jensway Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 Come is a verb, is is a helping verb. Come could only be a predicate adjective if it describes brother, but that does not make sense. A brother can be kind, cute, ridiculous, late, aggravating, etc., but I don't think a brother can be come. That's my take on it anyway. HTH. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 which is why "is come" would be a verb phrase. Yes, I think you're right about that it would be "has" today. In German, you use the verb "to be" instead of "to have" to form perfect tenses with intransitive verbs and what we call linking verbs - ie anything that doesn't take a direct object. I think this also used to be true of English - a Germanic language, after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekarl2 Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 One trick I use to decide whether a word is a predicate adjective or not is the "very test." If you can successfully put the word VERY before the word, it's usually a P-ADJ. If not, it's probably a verb phrase. My brother is very come. (nope) Sherlock Holmes is interesting himself in your case. Sherlock Homes is so interesting. Try putting VERY in front of INTERESTING in both sentences. In the first sentence INTERESTING is an action verb (IS is a helping verb). In the second sentence INTERESTING is a predicate adjective. blessings, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen in VA Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 One trick I use to decide whether a word is a predicate adjective or not is the "very test." If you can successfully put the word VERY before the word, it's usually a P-ADJ. If not, it's probably a verb phrase. My brother is very come. (nope) Sherlock Holmes is interesting himself in your case. Sherlock Homes is so interesting. Try putting VERY in front of INTERESTING in both sentences. In the first sentence INTERESTING is an action verb (IS is a helping verb). In the second sentence INTERESTING is a predicate adjective. blessings, That's really nifty - thanks for sharing that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekarl2 Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 That's really nifty - thanks for sharing that! I'm full of 'em! :001_smile::001_smile::001_smile::001_smile::001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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