 Wed Sep 13, 2006 4:48 am How come? |
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| Torsten wrote: | Hi, it just occurred to me that are a number of expressions with come that are quite interesting from a grammar point of view.
For example, is How come? short for How does it come? |
I don't think "How come?" is from "How does it come?", because no one would use the latter to ask a question. I don't know, but I think it's very possible it's an American adaptation of German "Wie kommt es?" Strangely enough, I get only 350,000 UK hits for that phrase on Google, but 12 million on US domains, which doesn't necessarily prove anything.
| Torsten wrote: | | And what expressions such as Come Monday, change your business all over. Is this just idiomatic use of come or is there a pattern? |
I think it's just the verb "come" used as an adverb or preposition. It's also possible to do this in the past tense, as in, "Came the dawn, we found everyone had left." |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 3872
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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