came
A1Universal (used across all registers, formal and informal)
Definition
Meaning
The simple past tense of the verb 'come', indicating movement toward or arrival at a location.
Can indicate progression, occurrence, emergence, or the point of achieving a state.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
As a past tense form, 'came' functions in the same semantic fields as 'come' but is temporally fixed. It is highly irregular, lacking the typical '-ed' suffix. Can be used with auxiliaries to form perfect tenses (e.g., 'has come', 'had come').
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant differences in usage or meaning.
Connotations
Identical connotations of arrival, movement, or emergence.
Frequency
Equally high frequency in both varieties.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[NP] came (PP)[NP] came to be (AdjP)[NP] came to (VP)[NP] came (AdjP)Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “came to pass”
- “came to light”
- “came to mind”
- “came full circle”
- “came to a head”
- “came to terms with”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Used in narratives of project timelines, client interactions, and market developments (e.g., 'The data came in yesterday').
Academic
Used to describe the emergence of ideas, theories, or events in historical or process narratives (e.g., 'The concept came to prominence in the 1990s').
Everyday
The most common usage, for describing personal arrival, events, and states (e.g., 'I came home late').
Technical
Used in computing (e.g., 'The result came from the server'), science (e.g., 'The solution came to a boil'), or engineering narratives.
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- He came round for a cup of tea.
- The post came quite late today.
- She came first in the maths competition.
- Winter came early that year.
American English
- He came over for coffee.
- The mail came really late today.
- She came in first in the math competition.
- Fall came early that year.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- My friend came to my house.
- The bus came at 9 o'clock.
- I came home from school.
- A strange idea came into my head.
- She came to realise her mistake.
- The book came out last year.
- The solution came to him in a moment of inspiration.
- After years of work, the project finally came to fruition.
- He came across as very confident in the interview.
- The long-awaited reforms came to pass amidst much political turmoil.
- It gradually came to light that several witnesses had been coerced.
- Her research came to challenge the prevailing scientific dogma.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Remember: 'Come' changed its 'o' to an 'a' to tell you it's in the past. 'CAME' has the same 'A' sound as 'DAY' and 'SAY', marking the action as done yesterday.
Conceptual Metaphor
TIME IS MOTION (a point in time 'came'); UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING/ARRIVING ('the idea came to me'); SUCCESS IS A DESTINATION ('she came first').
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid using 'пришёл' for inanimate subjects where English uses 'came' (e.g., 'The opportunity came' is correct).
- English 'came' does not encode gender (пришёл/пришла/пришло), so subject-verb agreement is simpler.
- Russian perfective/imperfective aspect is not directly mapped; 'came' is the simple past, not necessarily perfective.
Common Mistakes
- Using 'camed' (hypercorrection).
- Confusing 'came' (past) with 'come' (present/infinitive) in perfect tenses (e.g., 'I have came' is incorrect; it's 'I have come').
- Overusing 'came' where 'went' is correct (direction away from the speaker).
Practice
Quiz
Which sentence uses 'came' correctly?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
No, 'came' can be used for people, animals, objects, ideas, events, and abstract concepts (e.g., 'The time came', 'The answer came', 'Rain came').
'Came' is the simple past, used for completed actions at a specific past time. 'Has/have come' is the present perfect, connecting a past action to the present (e.g., 'He came yesterday' vs. 'He has come, so we can start').
Not by itself. For future meaning, you use 'will come' or 'is coming'. 'Came' is strictly past. However, you can use it in past tense narration of future events (e.g., 'He promised he came the next day' is incorrect; it should be 'He promised he would come the next day').
It does not follow the standard pattern of adding '-ed' to the base verb ('come') to form the past tense. Its past form 'came' involves an internal vowel change (suppletion), similar to 'go/went' or 'see/saw'.