Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

“He come back from overseas early”
Verbosity about verbs: The big blunders

THE IRREGULAR VERB TO COME

The most common error with the irregular verb to come occurs in the past tense.

Incorrect:

Eldora come home from work early yesterday.

The members come up with a new approach to the problem last month.

We come to the airport to meet the client, but she had already taken a cab.

Correct:

Eldora came home from work early yesterday.

The members came up with a new approach to the problem last month.

We came to the airport to meet the client, but she had already taken a cab.

The irregular verb to come has this strange pattern:

Present Tense:

They come home late from work every day.

Past Tense:

They came home late from work last week.

Present Perfect Tense:

They have come home late from work every day this month.

Past Perfect Tense:

They had come home late from work every day last year, so that’s why they began to look for a house near downtown.

Memory tip

Past has an a in it. Came has an a in it. Use came only when you’re talking about the past. Come has an o in it. Come represents the present, now, with an o in it.

C A M E = P A S T C O M E = N O W

Example:

Trixy came (past) by for lunch.

Trixy comes (now) by every day for lunch.