Come vs Go

Grammar chart explaining the difference between 'come' and 'go' with examples and usage rules.

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Come and Go are both verbs expressing movement from one destination to another.

Come

We use come to indicate movement towards the speaker or the listener.

Towards the speaker:

Come here. I need to speak with you.
Fred is coming for dinner tonight.
That car is coming towards us!

Towards the listener:

I’d like to come and see you someday.
We’d like to come to your party

We also use come when someone joins the movement of the speaker or listener to a different destination.

We have room in our car, so Nick is coming with us.
Can I come with you when you visit Mary next weekend?

Go

We use go to indicate movement away from the speaker or the listener.

Joe’s not here. He went to work.
I’m going to Spain to visit a friend next week.
When I finish work, I always go straight home.

Use either come or go

When we talk about a person who isn’t the speaker or the listener, we can use either come or go. We use come if we are describing the movement from the perspective of the person who is moving towards another person, and we use go if we are describing the movement from the perspective of the person who will be receiving the visit.

David came to his parent’s house to tell them the news. (We are speaking from David’s point of view.)
David went to his parent’s house to tell them the news. (We are speaking from his parents’ point of view.)

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Explanation

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