Grammar
When talking about their travels and commuting I often hear non-native speakers of English incorrectly use coming when they should be using going. So, which is the right one to use?
This is where it gets slightly complicated, because it depends on factors such as
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Grammar
Avoid common mistakes in English 3: Coming and Going
When talking about their travels and commuting I often hear non-native speakers of English incorrectly use coming when they should be using going. So, which is the right one to use?
This is where it gets slightly complicated, because it depends on factors such as
The place you’re going toBasically
Where you are
Whether the person you’re speaking to is already at that place (or likely to be there)
You go to see peopleSo, if you’ve failed to arrive at work one day the boss might call or text you (remember here the place where you work is often just referred to as “work”)
People come to see you
“Are you coming in to work today?” (the boss is at work so you are coming to them)Suppose you are talking to your friend (who isn’t connected to your workplace)
Or, maybe, you are making a call to explain the situation
“I’m really ill, I won’t be coming in to work today”
(the choice of coming or going is from the perspective of the person you’re talking to, in this case the person who you are talking to is/will be at work, this even applies if you are leaving a message on an answering machine or talking to someone who won’t be going in to work until later)
“I’m not going in to work today”Finally, you may have heard a few expressions relation to coming and/or going
(In this case you might consider going to see your friend and say to them: “I can come and see you instead”)
“I don’t know whether I’m coming or going”.Hopefully, now that you’re armed with that information, you’ll be able to correctly tell people whether you’re coming or going.
You would use this expression if you were confused and had too many things to think about. The idea being that a very confused person wouldn’t be able to decide if they weren’t coming or going.
“I can’t keep up with his comings and goings”
Here comings and goings means general movements and activities.
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- Why English?
I was asked on Twitter the other day how come I decided to study English. The question struck me as practically impossible to answer as I can hardly remember how/why I started. That doesn’t mean I’ve been learning English for a very long time, quite...
- The Definitive Article?
A quick recap for those who don't know, indefinite articles in English are used when you are referring to an object in general (not a particular one). Here are some example of the indefinite articles a and an in use I'm reading a book I'm...
- Silly Unstranded Preposition At The Bbc
Spotted on the BBC News website The three [South Korean mobile networks] are selling the phone now to get round government restrictions on to whom they can sell new handsets. Presumably the writer was trying to avoid ending the sentence with a preposition....
- Emphatic Do, Does, Did And Other Auxiliaries.
A quick look at how we stress auxiliaries to add emphasis. Now with exercises. Adding emphasis by stressing the auxiliary When we want to add emphasis to a verb, we often stress the auxiliary (say it louder), shown here by underlining. We...
- Random Thoughts About If I Were A Boy, You've Got Another Thing Coming And If Clauses.
Since I wrote my last post I've been thinking about these lines from 'If I were a boy' If you thought I would wait for you You thought wrong When I originally saw this, I was thinking 2nd Conditional, because I only paid attention to...