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source:

When selected

  • Cyclops, ready for your orders.

  • I see it all.

  • Awaiting orders.

  • A myth come true.

  • Always on standby.

  • Yes, commander?

(https://moapyr.fandom.com/wiki/Cyclops_Walker/Quotes)

Why not "A myth has come true" (which I would like to say) or "A myth came true" or "A myth comes true"?

Is "A myth come true" some kind of subjunctive mood?


Thanks, guys. By following your answers and comments, I found this: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/178493/a-dream-come-true-is-it-correct

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    As per stangdon's answer, it just so happens that come is the past participle of to come [which] looks exactly like the bare infinitive. For a well-known example where the past participle isn't the same as the infinitive, consider the same construction in the noun phrase the word made flesh in the Bible. Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 12:50

1 Answer 1

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"A myth come true" is a noun phrase, not a complete sentence.

You are correct in that if it were a complete sentence, the verb would have to be correctly conjugated for the subject. In this case, come is the past participle of to come, because it's being used like an adjective (although you are also correct that for to come, the past participle looks exactly like the bare infinitive), and the phrase is using [whiz-deletion]. You can think of it as
(This is) a myth (which has) come true.

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    +1 although I would have added that it is a pun on the idiom 'a dream come true'. Myths can't really come true because (1) they wouldn't be a myth if they were true, and (2) myths are legends from the past, so they can't become anything. Things like dreams (or hopes) can come true because they are forward-looking.
    – Astralbee
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 11:38
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    What is ‘whiz-deletion’?
    – gidds
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 22:10
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    @gidds: It essentially means leaving out "this is." See english.stackexchange.com/tags/whiz-deletion/info
    – trlkly
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 22:14
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    Ah, I see. Could that be edited into the answer?
    – gidds
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 22:20
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    It's possible for a notion to be a myth at some point in time, and for reality to later match the notion at some other point in time. While that would mean that the myth would cease to be a myth, there's no general expectation that "an X that becomes Y" continue to be an X. In some cases, the X would continue to be an X, but in many other cases it wouldn't be.
    – supercat
    Commented Jul 11, 2023 at 15:59

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