Talk:come

am come
Is there any citation for "come" being used as a present participle? If we're thinking of expressions like "I am come", I think they're probably past participles, with "be" used where we'd use "have" today. 18:31, 19 September 2007 (UTC)86.137.136.182 18:31, 19 September 2007 (UTC)


 * That’s a past participle. The tense is present perfect, but the participle is still the past, just like "I have come". The present participle is coming. —Stephen 11:53, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
 * So, "am come/is come" is equivalent to "have come/has come", isn't it?? Is it archaic? Does this apply to other verbs but come? Shouldn't it all be mentioned in "usage notes" section or somewhere else in the article? --One half 3544 09:00, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yep, they're equivalent. Like you say, it's archaic, only showing up in places like "Joy to the world, the lord is come" and "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds". I would think it would historically appear with other verbs--German continues to use be-perfects like this for all kinds of verbs of motion and change--but I haven't seen any others myself. Ewweisser (talk) 19:29, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the explanation.
 * For those who find this via a search engine or just stumble upon - here is another thread on this topic, with a list of German verbs, which use 'to be' (sein) as an auxiliary verb (and which should have been used in the same way in English several centuries ago). Oh, and here is another. --One half 3544 (talk) 16:20, 11 August 2012 (UTC)
 * and one more =) --One half 3544 (talk) 10:21, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

use in compounds
Should there be a citation for "come" being used to create a compound noun, meaning "also having the characteristics of". Examples might include going to a school-come-gulag, or visiting a bookshop-come-café? Also spelt cum, in this sense?

thai word
thai word is spell "ma" write by มา

come
CGEL opines that "come" has been reanalyzed as a preposition, roughly synonymous with by: in its temporal sense. Historically, it clearly derives from the verb. If it were still viewed by writers as a verb, then it should only appear in an absolute clause, set off by commas. Though that is usually the case in edited works, it is not always the case. Also, semantically, a "let/may Christmas come" reading or any reading that keeps the form "come" (vs "comes" or some other form of the verb) does not fit current English.

I think we have the rare privilege of seeing a new preposition being born. DCDuring TALK 19:03, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

@DCDuring - I don't agree this is a preposition, even though some online dictionaries analyse it that way. I suppose it can be substituted with "by" and the overall meaning is not very different, but that doesn't mean it is a preposition. I don't know if you know the Jimmy Buffet song "Come Monday", but that's a good example of a case where the intended meaning is very much verbal: it means "when Monday arrives" not "by Monday". I myself have always understood it as a subjunctive verb, like other modern-day subjunctive uses fossilised to a certain degree. I suppose we could leave the preposition def but I would also like to add a verbal def and cross-reference them. - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 20:17, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Côme
It's a good idea to put the first name at the top for disambiguation.
 * It has been there for some time, since this edit 11:27, March 31, 2008. DCDuring TALK 02:12, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

as they come
I think as they come is an idiom --Backinstadiums (talk) 20:16, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

come close
come close: to nearly do or reach something at several points we came close to an agreement Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 --Backinstadiums (talk) 19:13, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

c'
c' in words such as c'mere, c'mon --Backinstadiums (talk) 00:15, 26 February 2020 (UTC)


 * The part of those words that represents come is c'm, not just c' , but I've added them as related terms. (They could be moved to "derived terms" if someone wants.) I can also attest c'min and find one cite of c'mover . If there are enough of these, it could be worth a mention in the extensive usage notes.
 * 1876, Emily Huntington Miller, What Tommy Did, page 48:
 * Tommy saw the joke and laughed a little. "You c'mover an' we'll try it," said Billy.
 * - -sche (discuss) 01:38, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

come and get it
An imperative to come to a certain area to eat. ''Come and get it, boys! Dinner's on the table.'' https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Come+and+get+it! --Backinstadiums (talk) 10:27, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

as they come
What does come historically refer to in as they come? --Backinstadiums (talk) 15:59, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Polite imperatives
In sentences such as "Come and get your things," or "Could you come help me?" can "come" be used in cases where it doesn't really refer to a deictic center? Even if not, I think this use deserves a more direct mention, maybe as a sub-definition under "to move from further away to nearer to" : "(imperative, sometimes linked with *and*) to perform a request or command at a particular place" (and if you want/evidence supports it, you could end that with "close to the speaker" or "at the deictic center"). Etymographer (talk) 20:39, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Not a preposition but a "grammatical subject"
four years ago come Christmas, that is with a future event following as grammatical subject. --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:47, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, I understand this analysis. I dont have an opinion either way ... Im just posting to point out that, probably due to copyright restrictions, the link you posted doesnt work for me and might be walled off to all Americans and perhaps some others. (Assuming the book is in English, I wouldnt think your connecting from Spain would have anything to do with it.)  Thanks, — Soap — 15:42, 2 October 2023 (UTC)