You learn something new every day! Or at least I try to. It’s interesting for me (especially now that I teach English) to learn about different intricacies of English. Whether that’s a grammatical point or a new word, a difference in regional usage or anything else, it’s all interesting to me. It’s so much easier to explain a grammar point to your students when you’ve looked into it yourself. “Ms. Jessica, why do we use such and such here but not there?” That’s a great question! Let me get back to you on it… I like to be able to answer my students immediately if possible, but if I can’t then I can always look it up to tell them later.
Anyway, that brings me to my point! I was wondering if “how come” was grammatically correct, or if it was just a colloquialism. As it turns out, it is indeed grammatically correct and has slightly different usage from the word “why.”
Structure
First of all, when creating a question using “how come” vs. “why,” the word order in the question is different.
Why Questions – Why + aux verb + subject + verb + object?
Why are you eating pie?
The tense in this case is determined by the aux verb.
How come Questions – How come + sentence?
How come you aren’t hungry?
The tense in this case is determined by the main clause.
Meaning
Why Questions – When you want a reason for whatever piece of information you already know.
Why are you studying English? (I know that you are studying English. What is the reason?)
Why can be used in both formal and informal situations. It’s a very versatile question word.
How come Questions – When you want a reason for a piece of information which you are surprised by.
You’re already so good at English. How come you are studying English?
How come you aren’t in Chicago? (I thought you had a business trip.)
How come is used in a more friendly context and is used to express that the asker is surprised by the piece of information which they are asking about.
You shouldn’t use this in a more formal setting such as at work or in a presentation.
Conclusion
Basically, English is super versatile and has an abundance of ways in which to say the exact same thing, or the same thing with a very slightly different nuance. If you’re wondering how these translate into Japanese….
Why = なぜ？
How come = え、なぜ？
Yes, it’s the same thing…you just add some surprise to the second one.
Sorry for the potentially boring post! I found it interesting!
Until next time!! xx
Jessica's English Corner 