Learn English – How to use ‘come’ and ‘go’ and how different are they

deictic-verbsword-usage

I read in a book that the following sentences involving 'come' and 'go' have different connotations.

  1. Are you coming to the party tonight?
  2. Are you going to the party tonight?

I learned when you use 'come', you are approaching your goal, whereas 'go' makes you go away from where you are. So No.1 sentence is used when you also attend the party and you are asking whether he/she also attends the party with you. And No.2 sentence is used when you want to ask if he/she attends the party and it doesn't matter whether you attend or not. That shows using 'come' shows a little more kindness to him/her than 'go'.

That's what I learned at school. Is the usage above understandable?

Best Answer

The English use of come and go is a little different from other languages. In English you first establish a point of view and evaluate direction from there. So, for example, if I imagine I am already at the party, I would say:

Are you coming to the party tonight?

However if I am at home, I would instead say:

Are you going to the party tonight?

This can get complicated if we include another person in the sentence. In this case you can consider the point of view of that person:

Sharon asks if we are coming to her party tonight.

or

Sharon would like to go to the party with us tonight.

All of this is separate from your question of inclusion or kindness. Either way can be inclusive or kind, since that depends a more on other factors like context, intonation, permission, etc.

Please, I really would like for you to go to the party with me (inclusive and polite)

Hey, let me come to the party with you. (exclusive -- since I've been previous excluded -- and less polite)

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