1

Is 'come' in the following sentence the base form or the past participle?

“And Royce seemed to be everything I’d dreamed of. The fairy tale prince, come to make me a princess. Everything I wanted...”

If it's a past participle then is it a similar usage of come as in This is my dream come true?

4
  • 4
    Does this answer your question? Postmodification using participle: Is it grammatical? (A: What is your favorite movie? ... B: It is Titanic[,] created in 1997 by James Cameron.) Compare ' ... which was created ...' / ' who has [is!] come ...'. Aug 26, 2020 at 16:01
  • Sorry, not really. But I get when past participles act like post-positive adjectives. So are you saying it's the same case with 'The fairy tale prince, come to make me a princess. ' ? And even though it's punctuated with a period it's actually a noun phrase?
    – Jenny
    Aug 26, 2020 at 16:14
  • There is no sentence: it's a fragment. Compare 'It was Sue, sitting in the shade.' Or if you need the to-infinitive, 'It was John, trying to knit a jumper.' Or closer still, a fragment: 'Who should I find in the kitchen? My brother, trying to make me a souffle.' 'Who was / who had' 'make these into' (non-defining) relative clauses. Aug 26, 2020 at 16:32
  • 1
    I think I got it. Thanks!
    – Jenny
    Aug 26, 2020 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

0

I would interpret it as the past perfect used in an elided phrase.

Also, the second "sentence" in the passage is actually just a sentence fragment—which can be quite all right, stylistically speaking.

To paraphrase and slightly restructure the passage, consider this:

“And Royce seemed to be everything I’d dreamed of: the fairy tale prince [who had] come to make me a princess …”

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.