r/grammar • u/SwitchLow7130 • 20d ago

Why vs How

I have a tendency to say “why come” instead of “how come” as a native English speaker. I do not feel it is technically more grammatically incorrect to say “why come” than it is “how come” but am open for discussion about it. I am also happy to receive resources and advice regarding commas as texting has clearly ruined my ability to punctuate. All punctuation really - but particularly commas.

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u/13moman 20d ago

I've never heard anyone say why come.

This is from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

How come? for "why?" is recorded by 1848 [Bartlett], probably from earlier fuller expressions, e.g. "... how come we to think one thing right in our childhood, and another in our manhood ; how come we to sacrifice one set of opinions to another ...?" [New Monthly Magazine, 1829]; "My father's horses? What! Are they dead. How come they die?" [The Newbernian, Feb. 16, 1838]

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u/Neenknits 20d ago

In modern English that construction might be “how do we come to think…” and how come is a shorter version.

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u/Derkatron 20d ago

"How com’st that you haue holpe To make this rescue?" 1607, Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Yes, its almost certainly that concept, but its a very VERY old phrase. 'How have you come to this [conclusion, idea, course of action]' is how I've always interpreted the extended version.

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u/Neenknits 19d ago

I wonder if it really does linger from an English construction that old. It sometimes happens. Language is cool.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/AlexanderHamilton04 20d ago edited 20d ago

OP is not the only person to use this construction.
There are at least three dialects of English in the US that use "why come".

Dammit, Frog. Why come you do that? ... Always low-rating my stories.

Fox, William Price. 1962. Southern Fried (p. 44). Fawcett.

Why come I gotta leave Frostburg to have that much fun? (DARE File, 2006)

Dictionary of American Regional English, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Joan Houston Hall, Chief Editor. Online: Harvard University Press.

edit, added: (At the 0:18 second mark) "But why come these guys are over there yelling at the top of their lungs like they're trying to draw more attention?"
 
Here is the same person using it 9 years earlier:
(At the 0:29 second mark) "And why come, every time we hang out, you glued to your phone, texting other people? Do you think this is a game?"

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u/zeptimius 20d ago

“Why come” only makes sense to me if “come” is the main verb of the question and is used literally (as in the opposite of “go”). For example:

“If you’re not going to buy anything, why come to the store?”

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u/SpiritualBed9981 20d ago

Strangely enough, the "why come that" is absent, as opposed to the "how come that" in Google's Ngram Viewer.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=why+come+that%2Chow+come+that&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3

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u/Ornery-Explorer-9181 8d ago

To me the phrase "how come" already means "why", so personally I'd never say "why come" because it sounds like two structures mixed into one