HOW COME

Good morning and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Today's expression is: How come? (Informal, used in spoken English.)

It means: Why?

We use How come? when we want to know WHY something has happened or WHY a particular situation exists.

Example 1:
Chloe: How come you didn't come to class yesterday?
Johnny: I had to work late. Can you tell me what I missed?

Example 2:
Pilar: I've decided to sell my car.
Alex: How come? You just bought it!
Pilar: Well, I like the car, but I am finding that it is just too expensive to keep a car in the city. It makes more financial sense to rent a car when I need it and use public transport.

⇒ To get some writing practice, I encourage you to write your own sentence with today's informal expression. You can post your sentence to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP.

Enjoy the rest of your day!