come

Come is movement toward whoever is speaking — toward here, toward me. "Come in." "Come here a second." "Are you coming to the party?" Someone calls from the kitchen and you come.

It also means to arrive or to happen in its own time: spring comes late in the mountains, the letter came on a Tuesday, your turn comes after his. It builds states out of nothing — come true, come loose, come undone, come first — and it tells you what is on offer: the jacket comes in three colours. No English verb takes more phrasal partners: come back, come across, come round, come up with, come out, come to. The pair to watch is come and go: you come to where the listener is, so on the phone you say "I'm coming" even as you walk out of your own front door. The forms are irregular — come, came, come.

Phrases it lives in

• come across something — find it by chance
• come up with — think of an idea or a solution
• come what may — whatever happens — said to promise you will not be moved