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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

"Is descended" is it correct...

Apparently, the following sentence is correct:

The cat is descended from a larger family of tigers thousands of years ago.

"is descended" seems quite strange to me but I have been told that "has descended" is not appropriate usage in this case.

Thanks.
  

Top answer

The sentence is indeed correct. If you need an explanation, you could think of the past participle descended as being actually an adjective. If that explanation doesn't satisfy you, you could think of is an exceptional present perfect auxiliary.

— Cool Breeze

  • The sentence is indeed correct.
  • If you need an explanation, you could think of the past participle descended as being actually an adjective.
  • If that explanation doesn't satisfy you, you could think of is an exceptional present perfect auxiliary.
  • In the old days using be as a parfect auxilliary with intransitive verbs was common in the Germanic languages, and its German equivalent sein is used in modern German to this day.
  • CB
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1 Answers
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The sentence is indeed correct. If you need an explanation, you could think of the past participle descended as being actually an adjective. If that explanation doesn't satisfy you, you could think of is an exceptional present perfect auxiliary. In the old days using be as a parfect auxilliary with intransitive verbs was common in the Germanic languages, and its German equiva
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