# Is "how come" used outside of the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688 "2015-12-29T23:41:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/1 "2015-12-29T23:41:32Z")
Is “how come” used outside of the US in England, Australia, NZ? And how come one has to switch the “you” and “didn’t” in this and similar questions? _How come you didn’t leave? Why didn’t you leave?_ ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/2 "2015-12-29T23:46:30Z")
It’s always been my impression that the phrase is a shortened version of '_How has it come to be’…_. In other words, ‘_How has it come to be that you didn’t leave?_’. ---
**Author:** ![Richox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Richox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richox)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/3 "2015-12-30T00:04:43Z")
used frequently in Aus and NZ. It can be used as a standalone question /sentence or as part of a larger sentence. Person 1: I have t go back to the shops Person 2: how come? etc ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/4 "2015-12-30T00:10:40Z")
> [@Richox](#): > > used frequently in Aus and NZ. It can be used as a standalone question /sentence or as part of a larger sentence. > > Person 1: I have t go back to the shops > Person 2: how come? > > etc It is used that way in the U.S. as well. I guess they are the same at least for those three countries. Being a native American English speaker, I never really though about it but it is an odd phrase when you look at the constituent words. Some black Southerners substitute “why come” for “how come”. It isn’t that common but some of my high school classmates used that phrasing. It never sounded correct to me but, then again, “how come” doesn’t make a lot of intuitive sense either unless you are familiar with the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/5 "2015-12-30T00:32:34Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > Is “how come” used outside of the US in England, Australia, NZ? > > And how come one has to switch the “you” and “didn’t” in this and similar questions? > > _How come you didn’t leave? > Why didn’t you leave?_ To answer the second question: So-called wh-words generally invert the word order so the second phrase just follows that rule. As for the first, it seems to me that “you didn’t leave” is simply a subordinate clause and follows the standard rule for such clauses, no wh-word there to invert it. Incidentally, the wh-words are what, when, who, why, and how. (Well, how has a w and an h; more to the point it obeys the rules.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/6 "2015-12-30T00:33:31Z")
I can’t find an authoritative source for the origin of the phrase “how come,” but some websites say that the first use of it in print was in 1848 in an American publication. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/7 "2015-12-30T00:37:57Z")
I always assumed that there was an implied verb there — _How [did it] come [to pass that] you didn’t leave?_ — or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/8 "2015-12-30T04:37:10Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I can’t find an authoritative source for the origin of the phrase “how come,” but some websites say that the first use of it in print was in 1848 in an American publication. The online OED gives it. > [@](#): > > **how** , adv. and n.3 > … > > 1. _how come?_ colloq. (orig. U.S.) phr.: how did (or does) it come about (that)? Cf. _come_ v. 21a. > > 1848 _J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms_ How-come? rapidly pronounced huc-cum, in Virginia. Doubtless an English phrase, brought over by the original settlers, and propagated even among the negro slaves. The meaning is, How did what you tell me happen? How came it? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/9 "2015-12-30T10:23:47Z")
Used in the UK too. I assumed that it was an American import but it seems that it actually came home…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/10 "2015-12-30T11:54:56Z")
An excuse for a link to the late great (British) Ronnie Laine singing [How Come](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0AI_w_70w) 🙂 The phrase is very common in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/11 "2015-12-30T12:14:02Z")
I understand it to mean something more than just “why?” - somehow it conveys a certain surprise, as though whatever it is that’s to be explained is unexpected or unusual, or that the interlocutor should have been doing something else. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/12 "2015-12-30T13:01:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Some black Southerners substitute “why come” for “how come”. It isn’t that common but some of my high school classmates used that phrasing. It never sounded correct to me but, then again, “how come” doesn’t make a lot of intuitive sense either unless you are familiar with the phrase. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my homeroom teacher (who taught us reading and writing BTW) was an older than dirt black lady that used the term: “Why come?” all the time. I told my mom this (mainly because I picked up the term myself and my mom kept trying to correct me on it) and she absolutely would NOT believe me. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/13 "2015-12-30T13:06:41Z")
I also remember rural Southern Whites using ‘why come’ back in the day, but I haven’t heard it in many years. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-how-come-used-outside-of-the-us/741688/14 "2015-12-31T21:58:06Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > I understand it to mean something more than just “why?” - somehow it conveys a certain surprise, as though whatever it is that’s to be explained is unexpected or unusual, or that the interlocutor should have been doing something else. It’s also much softer, less interrogative. If someone says they can’t come to your party, saying “that’s OK. How come?” is much more likely to be well-received than “that’s OK. Why?” That makes it a very useful phrase to learn but almost every EFL student I’ve ever taught has not been told it till I tell them. It is, however, very common in British English. It’s one of a group of older phrases like wherefore, whence, etc, that are less used these days. Their lineage goes back to Germanic roots, which uses the structure of question word plus normal statement order (at least for those types of words). The question structures in English that use “did” and a change of word order hark back to old British languages which didn’t have as much in the way of case markers so used word order instead. Also, when “did,” “could” and other modal verbs are used, they do all the heavy lifting when it comes to changing tense, so the other verbs stay as infinitives.