how come

English

Etymology

US English, 1848, probably from older forms such as “How comes it that... ?” and “How did it come to be like this?”

Compare West Frisian hoe kom (“how come”), Dutch hoe komt het (“how come it; why”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haʊ kʌm/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (AU):

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Adverb

how come

1. (idiomatic, informal) Why; why is it; for what reason or purpose; due to what cause?

   Synonym: why come

   How come you didn’t leave when you had the chance?

Usage notes

“How come” differs from “why” in that the word order of the question is the same as that of a statement. Compare:

You didn’t leave. (statement)

How come you didn’t leave?

Why didn’t you leave?

Synonyms

• how's come

Translations

why

• Afrikaans: hoekom
• Bulgarian: защо (bg) (zašto), как така (kak taka)
• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 為什麼／为什么 (zh) (wèishénme), 为什么 (zh) (wèishénme)

• Czech: proč (cs), jak to, že (cs), jak to přijde, že
• Dutch: hoe komt het dat, waarom (nl)
• Esperanto: kial (eo)
• Finnish: miksi (fi), minkä takia
• French: comment se fait-il que (formal), comment se fait-ce que (formal), comment ça se fait que (colloquial), pourquoi (fr)
• Georgian: როგორ მოხდა (rogor moxda)
• German: wie kommt es dass, warum (de)
• Hungarian: hogyhogy
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: come mai
• Japanese: 何で (nande)
• Korean: 왜 (ko) (wae)
• Persian: چرا (fa) (čerâ)
• Polish: dlaczego (pl), jakże (pl), czemu (pl)
• Portuguese: por quê (pt), como (pt)
• Russian: почему́ же (ru) (počemú že), почему́ (ru) (počemú), почему́ э́то (počemú éto), как так (kak tak), как это так (kak eto tak)
• Spanish: cómo es que, ¿por qué? (es)
• Swedish: hur kommer det sig (sv), varför (sv)
• Tagalog: bakit (tl)
• Vietnamese: tại sao (vi), tai sao