Norwegian: er kommet

[littlepond]

Hei alle sammen!

While looking up the meaning of "gjenge" in the dictionary, I came across this sentence: "alt er kommet i gjenge igjen". (There is context beyond this.) I am not understanding that why this is "alt er kommet" instead of "alt har kommet": I guess the sentence means "everything's on the right course again" or something like that, literally "everything has come in course again". But shouldn't the auxiliary for past tense construction be "har" instead of "er"?

Thanks in advance!

 

[myšlenka]

It is possible to use være as auxiliary for a subset of the intransitive verbs, such as komme, gå, begynne etc. By using være you get a more result-oriented reading of the verb whereas ha favours an event-oriented reading.

 

[littlepond]

Thanks, but I didn't understand the result vs. event distinction. Do you mean result vs. process?

 

[raumar]

You will find more information about this distinction here:
ER blitt eller HAR blitt? ER kommet eller HAR kommet?

However, many Norwegians (probably most Norwegians) don't make any such distinction. For example, I generally use "har kommet" myself, not "er kommet". As mentioned in the Språkrådet link, there are regional variations, and probably also individual variations.

 

[littlepond]

Thanks a lot, @raumar: much clearer thanks to the link your provided.

 

[Silverc]

The difference in the use of auxiliary "ha"+ past participle and "være" + verbal adjective is more transparent in the cognate Swedish language (I do not know about Nynorsk), because in "allt har kommit" (Nor.: alt er kommet) and "allt är kommet" (Nor.: alt er kommet) are two distinct forms of the verb "komma" (to come), "kommit" is a form (called "supinum" by the Swedish grammars) that is used ONLY with the auxiliary verb "att ha", while "kommet" is the neuter form of "kommen", a verbal adjective that means "that has come". Now to the meaning: "allt har kommit" is simply the verbal form "everything has come", like a load of goods has been transported and arrived, and you report it; "allt är kommet" is rather biblical and ominous, and sounds like "all the prophecies have become reality" …, so to speak! But there are examples where a distinct use of the two forms, one with "att ha" and the other with "att vara" are more commonplace, at least in careful language (I said "careful", not "written"!), with slightly different meanings.