These questions ask what a come or go phrasal means in context. Decide whether the sentence is about movement, an event beginning or ending, a change of state, or an activity involving something.
Use the event as your signal
Read the subject and the nearby time or purpose words before looking at the particle. A person, a publication, a fitted part, an alarm and a flame can combine with similar particles but point to very different meanings. When a phrasal takes an object after across, through or over, keep that final particle attached to the verb.
| Situation | Form and a fresh example |
|---|---|
| An unplanned discovery, a topic arising, or a return | Use come across, come up or come back. Example: I came across an old coin in the garden. |
| A home visit, an opinion changing towards agreement, or a release | Use come over, come around or come out. Example: The revised guide comes out in April. |
| Something becoming detached, an activity continuing, or an alarm ringing or a bomb exploding | Use come off, go on or go off. Example: The label came off in the wash. |
| A fire or light ceasing to burn, living through hardship, or checking carefully | Use go out, go through or go over. Example: Let us go over the figures once more. |
A quick check is to replace the whole phrasal with its single-verb meaning. If came across can be replaced by found by chance, or went over by reviewed carefully, the sense fits. If your replacement only describes a physical route, reconsider any sentence about a problem, release, opinion, alarm or difficult experience.
The traps
| Tempting confusion | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Mistaking chance discovery for deliberate searching | Come across means find or meet unexpectedly. Looking for something is intentional, while bringing something back and putting it away describe later movement. |
| Giving come up or come around a purely physical reading | A topic or problem can come up by arising; a person can come around by changing an opinion; a fitted piece can come off by becoming detached. Growth, movement around a corner, recovery of consciousness and approaching a place are different senses. Come off is different: its pinned meaning really is physical - something becomes detached. |
| Treating every arrival as the same kind of coming | Come over normally frames a visit to someone's home, whereas come back is return. A book, film or product that comes out is being released, not visiting or returning. |
| Mixing up continuation, stopping, activation and review | Go on means continue. Go out marks a fire or light ceasing to burn, go off marks an alarm ringing or a bomb exploding, and go over means inspect carefully. Go through instead describes experiencing a demanding period. |
Try it
Theo left the café to fetch his wallet and returned ten minutes later. Using come, complete: Theo ___ to the café ten minutes later.
The smoke alarm began ringing at 3 a.m. Using go, complete: The smoke alarm ___ at 3 a.m.
Marta experienced months of painful treatment before she recovered. Using go, complete: Marta ___ months of difficult treatment.