Speaker 1: So I got invited to another one of Jack's parties.
If I go by myself, there's a good chance I
won't know anyone, which is okay unless a lot of
people come. But if Jenny comes with me, then there's
a better chance of having fun. I wonder if she'll
go or come with me? Come and go, let's talk
about this vocab.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine forty two.
Come versus Go in English. How to use them directly?
Thanks for tuning in. Have you ever been invited to
a party and someone says are you coming? And then
you reply, yeah, I'm going with Jake Way, if you're
both talking about the same event, how can one person
be coming and the other person going. That's the magic
and the confusion of the verbs come and go in English.
They seem simple, but they can be really tricky. Today
we're going to clear up one of the biggest confusions
that even intermediate and advanced learners struggle with. The difference
between come and go. They're both verbs about movement, but
who's moving and to where? Why is this so confusing?
Let's break it down. The key point and basic usage
of these words is like this, come here, go there.
If you can remember just this, come here, go there,
you'll save yourself a lot of confusion. Seriously, that little
phrase can help you out in so many situations. Let's
start out with go. We use go to show movement
to another place, and generally the speaker is not there,
go there. I go to the station every morning. I'm
not there now. I'm just telling you about my movement.
I go to the station every morning. Or Loriie went
to the mall about an hour ago. I'm not at
the mall. I'm just using go to talk about movement
to that place, and it's not where I am now.
It's different from where I am now. We use go,
so when we talk about moving away from the speaker,
go there. On the other hand, we use come to
show movement to the place where the speaker is. Come here,
Like I came to my office five hours ago. I'm
still here now, so I use KM instead of went,
I came here this morning. Here's another one, I came
to Japan nine months ago. I'm still here. I came here.
Whether you use go or come depends on where you are.
In general, I go there and there means the place
I am not, and I come here here means the
place I am right now. For example, I went to
the bank before work, and then I came to the office.
Listen again, I went to the bank, and I came
to the office. I'm in the office now again. As
you can see in all of these examples, when we
talk about ourselves moving, the basic idea is go there
and come here. When you talk about the movement of
other people, using go or come depends on where you
the speaker is. Like Joe lives in France. He's planning
a trip to visit two countries. He's going to go
to Italy first, and then he's going to go to Germany.
After touring Germany, he's going to go back to France.
Since I'm just talking about Joe's movement to place his
where I'm not, I use go, go to Italy, go
to Germany, go back to France, go there. But let's
look at this example. I live in Japan, Joe lives
in France. He's planning a trip to visit two countries.
He's going to go to Italy first, and then he's
going to come to Japan. After touring Japan, he's going
to go back to France. See the difference. He's going
to go to Italy, go there, then come to Japan
where I am come here, and then go back to
France go there. In all of these examples, I'm talking
to you, the listener of this podcast, about moving right.
But when we are talking to someone, we usually use
the word come or go that best matches the point
of view of the person we're talking to. So that's
in a conversation like the other day, my neighbor called
me and asked me for some help. He said, Hey, Michael,
I'm having trouble with my computer. Can you come here
and take a look at it. Then I replied, sure,
Ichi Tato, I'll come there right now. My neighbor asked
me to come to his house. He said come because
from his point of view, he wants me to move
toward him. Come here, he said. So I matched his
point of view and said I'll come right now. The
other day, my sister asked me like this, Hey, Michael,
are you going to come home for the holidays, and
I said, sorry, I don't think I can come to
New York this year. And then after that, my friend
here in Japan asked me like, oh, Michael, are you
gonna go to New York for the holidays? And I said, no,
I'm not gonna go this year. So using come or
go depends on where you are and the point of
view of the person you're talking to. My sister, who
is in New York, asked, are you gonna come here?
I said, I can't come this year. She's in New York.
From her point of view, she's thinking come here, so
I match her point of view, Sorry, I can't come
this year. But in the conversation with my neighbor, since
we are both not in New York, now we use go.
Let's look at one more situation. You invite someone to
a party at your place, you want them to come here.
You can invite them with come, like I'm having a party.
I hope you can come, and then your friend will
respond with yeah, I can come. What time should I come?
See how that works? I said come here. My friend
also uses come because it fits my point of view,
and in the opposite situation. If your friend invites you
to a party, they will say like, hey, we're having
a party next weekend, why don't you come? You would
say what time should I come? I would love to come. Okay,
let's review. We use come to talk about moving toward
the speaker or listener. We use go to talk about
moving away from the speaker or listener. When invitingating someone,
come usually sounds more natural, and remember both can work
in the same conversation depending on your point of view.
Here's one last example. Let's say you're at a restaurant
waiting for your friend. You text them and say are
you coming soon? That makes sense because you're already there
and you're asking if they're moving toward you. But when
they reply, they say, yeah, I'm going now. Also totally
natural because they're still at home and they're talking about
moving away from where they are. Perspective and point of
view is everything. Now. I know this can be a
little tricky at first, but the more you listen for it,
the more natural it becomes. Start paying attention to how
native speakers use come and go in shows, movie these podcasts,
and especially how it matches the person's location or point
of view. And Hey, keep in mind, the best way
to remember English like this and any other word or
phrase in English, is to take that word or phrase,
write it in a sentence that's true for you or
true in your world, and then memorize your sentences. That's
how you build fluency. Thanks for listening, and remember learning
another language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and
I'm here to help you on your journey.
Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please
visit Myhappy English dot com. Show your support for Happy
English by leaving us a review. Get English, get Happy
Happy English as from famish