Are these sentences correct:
1) One day came a man into her life.
2) One day there came a man into her life.
3) She will finish her studies. Then will come a man into her life.
4) She will finish her studies. Then there will come a man into her life.
Are they archaic?
Gratefully,
Navi
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Hi, Navi,
@navi posted:1) One day came a man into her life.
2) One day there came a man into her life.
3) She will finish her studies. Then will come a man into her life.
4) She will finish her studies. Then there will come a man into her life.
Correct, they are, but according to Mastering English: An Advanced Grammar for Non-native and Native Speakers, by Carl Bache and Niels Davidsen-Nielsen, 2010, the book I usually cite to refer to full inversion, fronted adverbials tend to be locative, and, when temporal, they tend to be one-word, like now and then. The authors don't mention it, but I also find the fact of the verb phrase consisting of more than one word (will come) an obstacle to the sentence sounding like an ordinary statement. For those two reasons, I prefer (2) and (4), and would consider (1) and (2) too literary and even awkward, depending on the circumstances where they are stated.
Thank you very much, Gustavo, for all your replies,
This was very helpful. I loved your 'Correct, they are'! Brilliant.
