Verb forms
Base form
/kʌm/
Past Simple
/keɪm/
Past Participle
/kʌm/
Example sentences
Base form · come
- My friends come to visit me every weekend.
Past Simple · came
- She came to the party despite being ill.
- We came it together earlier this week.
- She came without any hesitation.
- They came it again the following morning.
Past Participle · come
- Winter has come early this year.
- I have already come it more than once.
- She has just come the very same thing.
- By the time we arrived, they had come everything.
Common collocations
come true
to become real, as a dream does
come back
to return
come up with
to think of an idea or plan
Key tenses
| Present Simple | Past Simple | Present Perfect |
|---|---|---|
I come he / she / it comes | I came | I have come |
| Present Continuous:I am coming · he / she / it is coming | ||
Grammar guide
The verb "come" belongs to the rare ABA group: the base form and past participle are identical ("come" and "come"), while the past simple ("came") is the odd form out. Only a handful of common English verbs follow this pattern, which makes "come" easy to identify once you know the group.
Use the past simple "came" for a single completed action at a specific point in the past: "She came a personal best in last year's race." It stands alone as the main verb with no auxiliary required. Past-time markers — yesterday, last month, in 2019, an hour ago — accompany it naturally.
The past participle "come" — identical to the base form — always requires an auxiliary. It appears in: (1) present perfect constructions — "Have you ever come a marathon?"; (2) past perfect — "By the final lap, she had already come past three rivals"; (3) passive voice — "The route is come every spring." Because "come" looks exactly like the plain present tense, always check for an auxiliary verb (have, has, had, or a form of be) to determine the actual grammatical structure.
The ABA group is so small that it fits in one sentence: come–came–come, become–became–become, run–ran–run, and overcome–overcame–overcome. All four are closely related words built on the same roots. Once you know "come", the past participle comes free — the only form that requires separate memorisation is the irregular past simple "came".
Quick quiz
Which sentence is correct?
Conjugation pattern
The base form and the past participle are the same; only the past simple differs.
Verbs with the same pattern