The Phrasal Verb 'Come To' Explained
- Phrasal Verbs Explained
- Aug 1
- 12 min read
Updated: Aug 2
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'come to' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
In this post, I will be explaining the phrasal verb 'come to' and the different meanings that it has in English. Unlike many other phrasal verbs, 'come to' is not always considered a true phrasal verb as many of its most common meanings are verb and preposition combinations that are not single lexical units on their own. However, 'come to' does have a couple of true phrasal verb meanings too and I will cover all of these meanings, both true not true, in this post to enable you to see the diverse different ways that 'come to' can be used. So, without further ado, let's make a start....
TABLE OF CONTENTSÂ (Click to jump to each one)
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THE BASICS
COME TO: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 6 |
Past tense forms | Came to / Come to |
Separable? | No |
The phrasal verb 'come to' is formed of the verb 'to come' combined with the prepositional particle 'to' and so as a starting point in this article, let's briefly consider what these individual words mean on their own.
'To come' is one of the most common verbs in English with a variety of different meanings. It is first and foremost a verb of motion and is used primarily to talk about a movement towards or with the speaker. It is an irregular verb and also intransitive, so it does not take a direct object (i.e. you cannot "come something"). Therefore, the phrasal verbs that it features in are not usually separable.
I am coming to your house tomorrow.
Susan came to see me in hospital.
Do you want to come with us to London next week?
Robert doesn't want to come to the football match.
We came on the quiet roads and avoided the freeway.
The prepositional particle 'to' is one of the most commonly used words in the English language but surprisingly it appears in only very few 'true' phrasal verbs. Nevertheless, as a result of how it functions,'to' is used in many prepositional verbs such as 'listen to' and 'belong to' as a preposition to link the verb to its object.
So, now what we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'come to'.....
MEANING 1: To physically come to someone (literal)
CEFR Language Level | A1 - Beginner |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To go to, to approach |
Separable? | No |
The first application of 'come to' that we will cover in this post is the literal meaning of the combination of the two words, which is simply to physically move towards someone or somewhere where the speaker is, was or will be.
You should note that this application is typically used to focus on when we a person moves towards someone or somewhere and reaches it. If we are just concentrating on a movement in the direction of someone without reaching them, we tend to use 'come towards' instead.
As we are also focussing on the idea of reaching the person or place, 'come to' can sometimes also be used to mean 'to arrive' or 'to get to'.
I think that the main meaning of this literal usage is quite clear for you, so we won't spend any more time on this one, but here are a few example sentences for you before we move on....
John wants to come to our house next week.
Who is coming to the party later?
After class, one of my students came to me and told me that they had really enjoyed it.
I remember you, you came to my book signing event a few days ago.
MEANING 2: To reach a point or situation
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To arrive at, to reach |
Separable? | No |
For our second application of 'come to', rather than thinking about arriving at a physical place, we are instead thinking about reaching a particular point, state or situation.
We use this particular application to refer to when a situation develops until it reaches a certain point, which is normally an end point or a climax of some sort. It may be a decision or something else that will fundamentally change or end the situation or force the person involved to act in some way.
Frequently, when 'come to' is used in this way, it is rather negative in nature. Often, we use it to talk about how a situation could hypothetically get worse and specify what the worst case scenario would be. We then follow this up by saying "if it comes to this / that.....".
After several weeks of dispute, the union and the company came to an agreement.
Jamie and Lee still haven't come to a decision about where they will get married.
We finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the money.
I might lose my job next week, so if it comes to that, we will need to think about moving house.
I know we used to argue a lot but I didn't ever think it would come to this.
When 'come to' is used in this way, it features in a LOT of common set expressions with various nouns. As there are so many of them, I have included a section at the end where I cover some of the most common of these for you - click here to jump straight to these.
MEANING 3: To enter your mind
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To occur to, to realise |
Separable? | No |
Next, we move on to our third meaning of 'come to', which is all about things that happen inside your head and means 'to enter your mind'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Have you ever been in one of those awkward situations in which you see someone who you have not seen for a long time and you forget their name and then remember it 10 minutes later once they have gone? These situations are perfect for using this third application of 'come to' as you could say here that "the name came to you afterwards" to refer to the moment when you suddenly remember the person's name.
The reason for this is that 'come to' in this sense is used to describe when anything comes into your mind, so that you can remember or think about it. This may be an idea that comes to you in the middle of the night, a memory of your childhood that comes to you after smelling something that reminds you of that time or the answer to a question that comes to you whilst you are in the middle of making dinner.
On a grammatical note, this application of 'come to' needs to be followed by an object pronoun, such as me, him or her.
I was trying to remember her name, and suddenly it came to me.
A brilliant solution came to Terry in the middle of the night.
A long forgotten memory came to her as she walked past her old school.
I don’t know why, but the image of that day just came to me
As soon as he asked the question, the answer came to him immediately.
The girl's name didn’t come to me until after she had left.
The thought came to Roger that he might never see Lisa again.
BONUS: To come to mind
An extremely common expression featuring this application of 'come to' that exists in English is 'to come to mind'. This is essentially the same meaning as the one we've just covered i.e. when you are able to think of something immediately or with ease. I would say though that speakers use this more commonly in the negative form when they are asked for some information and they are not able to think of or remember anything.
When my boss asked me if I knew anyone who was looking for a job, you came to mind straight away.
Nothing comes to mind right now, but I’ll think about it.
The police asked me if I could remember anything suspicious or strange about that day but nothing came to mind.
MEANING 4: To amount to a number
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To amount to, to make, to add up to |
Separable? | No |
This next application is one for those of you who enjoy maths*, doing sums and crunching numbers as it means 'to amount to a number'.
*math in American English
Nouns commonly used with this application....
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Regardless of your mathematical ability or how you feel about the subject, this meaning of 'come to' is one that affects all of us on a regular basis as we use it when talking about the total amounts of things when numbers are added together etc.
It is particularly common when discussing money and how much of it has to be paid. In fact, we use it so much to talk about how much things cost that it exists as a synonym of the verb 'to cost' and is regularly used in this way.
We've added up the total sales figures and it comes to over 1000.
If you multiply the figure by 10, divide it by 20 and multiply it by 2, it comes to the same amount.
With taxes and tips, the total comes to nearly £100.
Altogether, the repairs came to less than we expected, which was a pleasant surprise.
The damages could come to millions of Euros.
Margaret's medical expenses came to over $10,000 last year.
If we divide it by 6, it only comes to a few dollars per person, so it is good value for money.
The total cost comes to less if you buy in bulk.
After adding the service fee, the price came to $45.
All his debts came to a staggering amount.
MEANING 5: To regain consciousness
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To regain consciousness, to wake up |
Separable? | No |
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, most of the applications of the phrasal verb 'come to' are not considered "true" phrasal verb meanings in the sense that they are verb and preposition combinations without much meaning on their own. BUT this fifth meaning of 'come to' IS a true phrasal verb application and means 'to regain consciousness'.
If a person ever suffers a head injury or has a severe medical condition, it can cause them to lose consciousness, meaning that they are no longer aware of their surroundings and cannot respond or communicate to people (not the same as sleeping). When the person regains consciousness and is once again aware of everything around them, we can say that they "come to".
Unlike the other applications of 'come to' that we have covered, it does not need to be followed by any other words when used this way as we are not used the 'to' as preposition to link an object but rather as a particle.
Kevin came to a few minutes after fainting.
Beth slowly came to in the hospital bed, dazed and confused.
I don't remember what happened after I hit my head; I was on the floor when I came to.
When Phillip came to, he had no idea where he was.
The patient came to shortly after the operation.
It took Aaron a while to come to after being knocked out.
The boxer came to moments after the referee ended the fight.
MEANING 6: To stop moving (ship)
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Rare |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To stop, to halt |
Separable? | No |
We have now arrived at our sixth and final meaning of 'come to', which is much rarer than the other uses that we have covered and is specifically used to describe when ships, boats or other waterborne vessels stop moving in water.
Nouns commonly used with this expression....
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Typically, this application is heard in reference to when a boat drops its anchor, turns into the wind or turns its engines off in order to stop moving.
As with the previous application, this one is also a "true" phrasal verb usage as 'come to' exists on its own and does not require any additional words to give it meaning.
The captain ordered the vessel to come to and drop anchor near the shore.
We came to just outside the harbour and waited for clearance to dock.
The ship came to quickly after the engines were cut.
As the storm intensified, the boat was forced to come to and ride it out.
After drifting for hours, the boat finally came to near a small island.
BONUS: Common expressions featuring 'come to'
As I mentioned earlier in the post, 'come to' features in a large number of commonly used expressions in English and so here is a list of some of the most frequent ones that you may come across....
To come to nothing - This expression is used in situations when we plan or prepare for something and it fails or does not happen for some reason. It is often used to say that time and effort on something was wasted.
I spent years working on the project but sadly all my hard work came to nothing when it was cancelled.
To come to fruition - This one is the exact opposite of 'come to nothing' and is used when something that you have planned is successful. Note that the word 'fruition' comes from the word 'fruit' and refers to when your efforts and hard work bear fruit.
Let's just hope that the project comes to fruition and none of our time and energy has been wasted.
To come to rest - This one has some similarities with the sixth and final meaning that we have just looked at as it means to stop moving and take position in a particular spot.
The wreck of the Titanic came to rest on the ocean floor after sinking.
Kelly hit the ball as hard as she could and it flew through the air for ages before finally coming to rest on in the top branches of a tall tree.
To come to light - We use this expression when information that was previously unknown is made available. This is particularly the case when this information changes what people thought about a situation and what caused it.
Since the police ended their investigation, it has come to light that the victim knew the murderer and so they have decided to re-open the investigation.
As more information has come to light about the crime, the judge has recalled the previous witnesses for further questioning.
To come to harm - If someone or something comes to harm, it means that they are injured or hurt in some way (or damaged for a non-living object). I would say that it is more common to hear the negative version 'to come to no harm'.
Don't worry, you will come to no harm with me.
I pray every day that my children come to no harm.
To come to terms with something - This common expression is used to mean to accept something that has happened in your life and make your peace with it. It is typically something unpleasant or life-changing such as the death of someone close to you or the diagnosis of a serious illness.
I've spent the past few weeks trying to come to terms with the death of my wife.
Sarah finally came to terms with the news of her cancer diagnosis and vowed to beat the disease.
To come to your senses - We use this particular expression to talk about when someone starts acting normally or rationally again after a period of stupid, foolish or irrational behaviour that is not normal for them.
I'm going as I can't deal with you at the moment; give me a call when you have come to your senses.
To come to someone's attention - If something comes to someone's attention, they are made aware of some information. This may be something that the person is told or something that they find out by accident. This is something that I hear managers using all the time in business English.
It has recently come to my attention that several employees have been taking longer lunch breaks than permitted.
To come to pass - This one is a literary expression that simply means 'to happen'. It is one that you will possibly come across in books and in TV shows but not so much in spoken everyday English.
If it comes to pass that the princess marries the earl, it will be a great day for our nation.
To come to blows - If two or more people engage in a physical fight, we can say that they 'come to blows'. Note that this would not be used for an organised fight such as a boxing match but for an unplanned fight that breaks out between people.
The two drunk men came to blows in the pub after one insulted the other man's girlfriend.
When it comes to.... - This final expression is used to introduce a subject, specifically when you want to tell someone about a person who is an expert in that subject or knows a lot about it.
When it comes to gardening, my Dad is one of the most knowledgeable people that I know.
We have now reached the end of this post and I just want to say thank you for clicking on my post and reading it. I hope that you've enjoyed it and have been able to learn something new about the phrasal verb 'come to'. If you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and check out some of my other posts.
Now it is YOUR turn. Can you think of a sentence yourself using 'come to'. Write it in the comments section below if you can, or alternatively any comments, suggestions or feedback that you may have....don't be shy!!!
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