They were come

[nyggus]

"They were come to the town nearly at midnight."
I have found this construction several times and am not sure about it. What does it mean? (Well, I know what it means but what bothers me is that it just looks strange for me and I cannot find the rule it is based on.)

Best,
Nyggus

[virtualstrider]

Originally Posted by nyggus

"They were come to the town nearly at midnight."
I have found this construction several times and am not sure about it. What does it mean? (Well, I know what it means but what bothers me is that it just looks strange for me and I cannot find the rule it is based on.)
Best,
Nyggus

I must agree, it does sound a little peculiar.

Instead of "were come" I would use "came"

If it was me writing it however, I would rewrite the sentence as:

"They arrived at the town close to midnight."

I hope I helped

[virtualstrider]

Dwelling on the subject a little longer, you could possibly change "come" to "coming".

An example being:

"They were coming to town for the event but had to cancel when they missed their train."

VS

[MrPedantic]

Hello Nyggus

In some verbs of motion and change (e.g. come, go, become), it was once customary to use "to be" as the auxiliary instead of "to have".

You still find it in modern texts, sometimes: it has an archaic air (slightly Biblical, perhaps).

All the best,

MrP

PS: Thus "they were come" means "they had come".

[virtualstrider]

Thanks for your sage advice, MrP

[nyggus]

Originally Posted by MrPedantic

Hello Nyggus

In some verbs of motion and change (e.g. come, go, become), it was once customary to use "to be" as the auxiliary instead of "to have".

You still find it in modern texts, sometimes: it has an archaic air (slightly Biblical, perhaps).

All the best,

MrP

PS: Thus "they were come" means "they had come".

Thanks, MrP. Actually, it was from Tolkien, and there you may find some archaic air.

Best,
Nyggus