Come vs. Go

Many English language learners misuse these two verbs. Today, I'm gonna teach you about their parts of speech, meanings, and the contexts in which we use them.

What Is Their Main Difference?

Both of these words show movement, but 'come' shows moving close to the speaker, whereas, 'go' indicates moving away from the speaker to another direction.

Differences

The main difference between these two words is that we use 'come' in order to tell someone to move closer to us. Look:

As I was coming to get you, I listened to the news.

Will Martha come to my birthday party?

However, when we use 'go', we tell the listener to move away from us and towards another direction. Check out the following examples for more clarification:

I'm sorry, but I can't talk to you right now. I have to go to the office.

Going on a trip to Turkey might help you release the tensions.

Similarities

These verbs are similar in that they show movement from one place to another. Look at the examples below:

Come here at once!

The doctors told me to go to the drug store nearby.

Are They Interchangeable?

In spite of the fact that both of these verbs indicate movement, they cannot be used interchangeably, because one indicates moving close to the speaker, while the other one shows moving away from him/her. Compare the examples:

✓ The Johnsons could come to us and started asking questions about our lives.

X The Johnsons could go to us and started asking questions about our lives.

We cannot use 'go' when we want to indicate movement towards the speaker.

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