Come is an irregular verb about movement toward a person, a place, or a point in time you treat as the destination. You use it for physical travel, arrival, joining, and events that happen next. The key idea is direction toward the speaker, listener, or a referenced destination, not away from it.

Use come when the motion is toward where you are, where the listener is, or where the conversation places the focus. You can also use come for moving from a past point toward the present or toward an upcoming moment. If the motion is away from the focus, English usually prefers go instead.

Rule	Example
Use come for movement toward the speaker or the speaker location	Come here.
Use come for movement toward the listener or listener location	I will come to your office.
Use come for events that happen next in a sequence	Then came the hard part.
Prefer go for movement away from the focus	I will go to the store.

Come has three key forms: base come, past came, and past participle come. The past participle come is used with have and with passive or participle constructions. The form does not change for the past participle, even though the past form changes.

Subject	Form	Example
I	come	I come early.
you	come	You come by bus.
he	comes	He comes every day.
she	comes	She comes after work.
it	comes	It comes with a warranty.
we	come	We come at noon.
they	come	They come together.

Came is the simple past form and is used for completed actions in the past. Use it when the coming happened at a specific time or in a finished past situation. It is also used in narratives to move the story forward.

Rule	Example
Use came for a finished past action	She came yesterday.
Use came with past time markers	They came at 8 pm.
Use came in storytelling for sequence	He opened the door, and she came in.

Come is the past participle and is used with have for perfect tenses and in participle phrases. Do not use came after have. In present perfect and past perfect, come emphasizes that the arrival has happened by a certain time.

Rule	Example
Use have come for present perfect, not have came	They have come already.
Use had come for past perfect when a later past event is described	She had come before I arrived.
Use come in participle phrases to describe a state or sequence	The guests, having come early, waited outside.

In the present simple, come can describe routines, repeated actions, and general truths. It also appears in set expressions that describe origin, source, or result. With time words, it can mean something is happening soon or is approaching.

Rule	Example
Use present simple for habits or schedules	I come here every Friday.
Use come to mean originate from	This idea comes from her research.
Use come to mean something is approaching in time	Summer comes quickly.

Come often combines with particles and prepositions to create specific meanings. The particle changes the direction, completion, or purpose of the motion. These combinations are common in everyday English and often act like fixed phrases.

Word/Phrase	Definition	Example
come in	enter	Come in and sit down.
come out	exit or become visible	The truth came out.
come back	return	She came back late.
come over	visit casually at someone location	Come over this evening.
come up	approach or arise	A problem came up.
come across	find by chance	I came across an old photo.

Come can describe reaching a new state, result, or position rather than physical movement. These uses often signal a change over time, development, or a new understanding. The destination is an outcome or stage, not a place.

Word/Phrase	Definition	Example
come to an agreement	reach a shared decision	We came to an agreement.
come to realize	begin to understand	I came to realize I was wrong.
come to mind	enter your thoughts	Nothing comes to mind.
come true	happen as hoped	Her dream came true.
come of age	reach adulthood	He came of age abroad.

Come is used in formal or narrative style to mark what happens next. You will see it with inversion or with fixed patterns that sound literary. This use focuses on sequence and emphasis, not literal travel.

Rule	Example
Use then came to introduce the next event with emphasis	Then came the announcement.
Use here comes to announce an arrival in the moment	Here comes the bus.
Use there comes less often to point out a distant arrival	There comes the manager.

Come and come keep the same pronunciation, while came changes the vowel sound. Come uses a short stressed vowel sound, and came uses a long vowel with a glide. In natural speech, come can reduce slightly in connected speech, but the stressed vowel stays clear.

Rule	Description	Notation	Example
Come has the vowel sound in strut	stressed vowel is mid and short	/kʌm/	Come here.
Came has a long a sound	vowel is a diphthong	/keɪm/	She came late.
Past participle come sounds like base come	same pronunciation, different grammar role	/kʌm/	They have come already.
Final m is held before a pause	lips close and sound stops cleanly	/m/ closure	Come.