While I was watching the movie Elizabeth I noticed (presumably medieval) usages such as "we are arrived...", "we are come", etc, instead of "we have arrived...", "we have come..." I was wondering if using "have" for all verbs is a relatively recent change, and English used both "to be" and "to have" as past tense auxiliary verbs at some point in the past, as French continues to do (etre and avoir for different verbs.) If so, were the rules similar, using to be for most movement verbs? Were the rules as rigid as in French?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Emil
2006-10-11
00:23:50
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3 answers
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emil
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Words & Wordplay