Learn English – A parallelism between “Here come they …” and “Here comes the bus …”

grammaticalityword-order

A1. Hardly had they arrived …

A2. Hardly had the bus arrived …

B1. Here come they

B2. Here comes the bus

One can notice a parallelism between A1 and A2, and these sentences are both acceptable English. Exchanging they and the bus does not produce effects under the grammatical correctness aspect.

But, even if one can notice the same parallelism between B1 and B2, the same conclusion cannot be stated because, as far as I know, B1 is not "standard" English.

Can anybody explain why?

Best Answer

I think the "parallelism" here is potentially misleading. Modern English doesn't normally start a sentence with an adverb in this way. We still use A1, A2, B2 in a limited number of constructions, but the grammar involved is no longer "productive".

As regards sentences starting with "Hardly", I would say these are always dated/formal/literary. Thus, for example, "Hardly had I begun" would normally be phrased today as "I had hardly begun".

We still "tolerate" the form here comes X, but it's no accident that OP chose to switch the verb from arrive to come. Modern grammar doesn't allow constructions like "here arrives the bus", except for certain established usages involving certain verbs (there goes the neighborhood is another one). Here's a chart showing how the form Here stand I, for example, has declined over the past couple of centuries, and here's one for Here stands a man showing that it's the same with both nouns and pronouns.

It seems to me here X comes is an even more "fossilised" form than here comes X. But it's been "modernised" by allowing X to be a pronoun, and we've gotten so used to that form we don't like to put the pronoun at the end any more.

Notice that for the vast majority of verbs which can be modified by here, there, etc., you simply can't put the adverb at the front. You have to adopt the modern style and place it after the verb...

"See that building? I worked there". (grew up, lived, studied, etc.).

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