Hello. And today I'm going to talk about two verbs go and come. Now, they're very common and very simple verbs, aren't they? Well, they do have complications in their use for learners of English. Let's talk about them.
Right, the first thing I want to talk about with these two verbs go and come is when we use go and when we use come. I think the rule would be come is used when the speaker is moving towards the person he or she is talking to. Is that clear? Let's give some examples. Now I'm sitting in this room here at the moment in this office is a little office in my house. If somebody comes and knocks on the door, I will say come in, please come in. Why do I say come in? Because the speaker - that's me and the person I'm talking to (we) are moving towards each other. So I say come in.
Now if I were outside, in the passage way, outside this office, and in front of me, there was a guest. And he looks around and he says to me, can I go in? Can I go into the office? Because if he's in front of me, and I'm behind him, Well, then he will say go. And I will say yes, of course please go in, go in the office, because now he's moving away from me.
So other examples then, if I'm talking to somebody, obviously, if I'm talking about any travels, any places I'm going to I will use go because I'm talking about moving away from the person I'm speaking to.
"Oh, tomorrow I'm going to Madrid."
"Oh really? Why are you going there?"
"Oh, some business. I've got to see to I see."
"Going to Madrid. That's interesting. When you coming home?"
"Oh, I'm coming home. I'm coming back to Seville? Well, I'm just staying the night. So I'm coming back the next day."
So that's quite clear, I think, isn't it that you say go when you're talking about going on some trip to some other place, and then come when you come back to the person you're speaking to.
So it's the same by telephone as well. That if I was in Madrid and I call somebody and I say,
"Hello. Hello, how are you? Yeah, I'm in Madrid."
"Oh, in Madrid. What are you coming home?"
"Oh, I'm coming home. Tomorrow, I think I'm coming home tomorrow..."
...as I'm talking about moving towards that person I'm speaking to.
Well, the other thing about come and go. And in fact, actually I want to talk about go more than come. When I look at textbooks, English textbooks, and I see the list of verbs - the verb tables. Do remember those? At the back of the book, you have a list of the infinitives of the irregular verbs. And then next to that column, you have the past tense. And then the third column is the past participle. And go and come are obviously irregular verbs. So they're always on that list.
But I want to draw your attention to go. And I usually notice that the only word they put in the past participle column for go is gone. So we have go, went, gone. But I think we should remember there are two past participles for go: gone and been. Now they're used differently, again, depending on whether we have gone somewhere, or whether we've gone and come back again.
If we have gone and we've come back, we say been. And if we've gone, well, we've gone. So if I go to Madrid, and somebody in Seville where I live, they say,
"Where's your husband gone?"
"Oh, my husband's gone to Madrid."
And then when I come back to Seville, and somebody asks me,
"Where have you been?"
"Oh, I've been to Madrid."
Because now I have come back again. And that's important to remember, gone and been are the past participles of go.
Now you may say no, that's not right. That's not true. That been is the past participle of the verb to be. And yes, it is. But it's also the past participle of the verb go. And there's proof to this. The proof is, is that we say, I have been to Madrid and to is a preposition of movement. We do not use to with verbs that are not verbs of movement. You go to Madrid. And so you have gone to Madrid or you have been to Madrid.
So one thing to remember is that we can only use gone when we're talking about somebody else. So that means then we can never say I've gone. Well, there is an exception. Or rather, we can't say it, but we could write it just like in the Bing Crosby song - Gone Fishing. Do you remember that one? Gone fishing instead of just a wishing, gone fishing.
He leaves that note on the table for his girlfriend or his wife. He means I've gone fishing. I'm not here. That's all for now. Thank you very much. Bye bye.
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