Learn English – Usage: Come vs Go

differencesentence-meaningverbs

Please help me identify whether my usage of come and go in the following sentences is correct or wrong 🙂 I will also appreciate it if you explain why they are wrong 🙂 Thank you in advance 🙂

Already at work:

  • I go to work at 4 pm. I come to work at 4:30 pm.
  • I went to work at 4 pm. I came to work at 4:30 pm.
  • What time do you go home from work?
  • What time do you come home?
    (I personally think this should be What time do you get home?)
  • Mom, my friend is coming to our house later.
    (I think this should be, My friend is coming over. I am not sure if adding to our house is correct.)

Already at home:

  • I go home at 6 am. I come home at 6:30 am.
  • I went home at 6 am. I came home at 6:30 am.
    (I normally say, *I get/got off from work at 6 am. I get/got home at 6:30 am *)

On the phone w/ a friend:
(I am in the Philippines, my friend is in another country, let's say Turkey)

  • When are you coming in the Philippines?
  • When are you going to Greece?
  • I will go to Turkey this summer.
  • My friend from Canada is coming in the Philippines in February.
    (I would have used the adverbs here and there but I also want to learn how to use come and go with prepositions when the specific location is mentioned.

Best Answer

English is unique in that "come" and "go" do not relate as much to direction of travel as your perspective when you speak. Perspective is where you imagine you are when you are speaking. For example, suppose I'm talking to my friend on the phone:

I am leaving right now to come to your party.

I'm not at my friend's party, but I visualize that I am at the party with my friend. In a similar way:

Would you like to come to my friend's party with me?

Neither of us are at the party, but by using "come" instead of "go" it's an invitation that visualizes us both at the party. Of course I could also ask:

Would you like to go to my friend's party with me?

This is perfectly grammatical. The only difference is my perspective of us, here, moving toward the party together.

So the answer is all of your sentences are correct, and most of the time it doesn't really matter where I am when I say them. "I come to work", "I go to work" -- either way I don't have to be at home or at work to say these. It all depends on my perspective, whether I imagine myself already at home or already at work.

Keep in mind you have to use the perspective that makes sense in context. If my friend and I are thinking of a trip to Europe, I would say

Let's go to Europe.

and not

Let's come to Europe

However if I was talking to my friend in Europe I might say,

I want to come there to see you!

The difference is that, in the first case, there is no one in Europe whose perspective I relate to. In the second case I can put myself in my friend's shoes and see myself coming toward her. However, I can ask my friend in the US:

Do you want to come with me to Europe?

because I visualize that person with me as we move toward a location -- she's "coming along" with me.

It may sound confusing at first, but it does make sense once you get used to it.

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