It is like a dream come/s true.

[Tan Elaine]

It is like a dream come true.

Why is 'come' used instead of 'comes'?

Thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

It is like a dream come true.

Why is 'come' used instead of 'comes'?

Thanks.

Imagine that it's "It is like a dream [which has] come true".

 

[sumon.]

But the problem is that it is an active thought. So why it should not be, "It is like a dream coming true."?
Because of its being a song? or Is it a complex sentence(imagined complex sentence)?
[h=3][/h]

 

[Raymott]

But the problem is that it is an active thought. So why it should not be, "It is like a dream coming true."?
Because of its being a song? or Is it a complex sentence(imagined complex sentence)?

It's not a problem. You say, "It's like a dream come true" even if it's still in the process of becoming true. You can say it has come true, because you know it is happening - otherwise you wouldn't be able to use "coming true" anyway.

For example if a certain man asked a woman to marry him, she might say, "It's like a dream come true". She's obviously assuming that the wedding will go ahead etc. Enough of the dream has come true to assume that the dream will play out to the end.

Anyway, regardless of the explanation, that's the idiom.

 

[White Hat]

It's one of those set expressions.