Learn English: “How come?”

学英语：“How come?”

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you a very important expression

嗨，我的名字是Emma, 今天的视频我将会教你一个很重要的

for conversation.

对话用语

That expression is: "How come?"

那就是"How come?"

It's a very popular expression you may see in movies, on TV, or in conversation with

这是个你可能在电影里很常见的说法，或者你在和

English speakers.

外国人讲英语的时候也会遇到

But it's a very good one to know because we do use it a lot.

但非常需要你了解，因为我们用的非常多

So, what does "How come?"

那什么是“How come？”

mean?

的意思？

Okay, well, first I have a question for you.

好，首先我有个问题要问你

I have here two sentences.

这里有两个句子

"Why did you miss your plane?" and "How come you missed your plane?"

为什么你错过了你的飞机？ 和 你怎么错过了你的飞机？

What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

这两个句子有什么不一样呢？

Maybe you already know.

估计你已经知道了

Okay?

对么？

So take a guess.

猜一猜

The difference in meaning is actually they mean the same thing.

这个不同的意思是，他们指的是相同的事儿

"How come?" is another way to say "Why?".

How come? 这是另一种 Why的问法

It's just a little bit more informal.

这只是有一点非正式

Okay?

明白不？

So if you're writing, you're going to use "Why?", but if you're speaking you can use

所以如果你写作，你要用Why，但是日常口语你可以用

both. Okay?

这俩都行。

"How come?" is informal, it's an informal way to say "Why?"

How come？ 是非正式的，他是口语化的“why”的说法

And so, by informal, I mean you use it with your friends, with, you know, people you're

所以，在非正式场合，我意思是和你的朋友啊，在街上

talking to on the street, but you wouldn't use it in an essay. Okay?

碰到的人交谈啊，但是你不能用到你作文里，明白不？

Or for school.

或者学校也不行~

Okay, so: "How come?"

ok，所以 “How come？”

means: "Why?"

意思就是 “Why？”

So, when we're asking: "How come?"

所以，当我们问 “How come？”

what we're asking about is... we want to know why something happened or the reasons why

当我们正在问关于 我们想知道为什么某些事儿会发生

something happened. Okay?

或发生的原因， Okay？

So, for example: "How come you missed your plane?"

举个栗子： 你怎么错过了你的飞机？

You know, a reason might be: "Oh, I was late getting to the airport" or "I slept in." Okay?

你懂的，原因可能是：哦，我到机场时迟到了 或 我睡过头了

So these would be the answers to a question like: "How come?"

所以这些都可能是How come的答案

So, a lot of the time, teachers will ask this question.

所以 很多这种时候，老师们会问你这个问题

"You were late for class today.

你今天上课迟到了。

How come?"

咋回事儿？

That means the teacher wants to know why you were late for class.

那个意思就是老师想知道为什么你上课迟到了。

So now let's look at the grammar of "How come?" and how we can use it in a sentence.

所以现在，让我们看看这个How come的语法，还有怎么用在句子里

Okay, so again, "How come?" is an informal way to say: "Why?"

好，在强调一次。How come 就是中非正式的问法讲：Why？

So, we often use it in conversation.

所以， 我们通常用它在日常对话里

Now let's look at the grammar of "How come?" and how we make a sentence with "How come?"

现在来看看它语法，我们怎么用“How come？”造句呢

So, I have here: "How come", which is at the beginning, and then we have plus the subject.

这里有 “How come”座位开头的，我们可以加些主语（subject）

A subject is...

主语是

It can be: "I", "you", "he", "she", "they", "we", or it can also be a thing, a place,

它可以是： 我 你 他 她 他们 我们 或者 它（可以指东西或者地方）

or a person, but it's the doer of a sentence.

或人，他是这个句子的执行者

Then we have the verb.

然后我们有 动词（verb.)

So, for example: "play", "take", "listen", "sing", "eat", these are all verbs.

举个例子： 玩 拿 听 唱 吃 这些都是动词

And then finally we have an object, which comes after the verb in regular English sentences

最后这是谓语通常在句子里它是跟在动词后面的

and usually those can be people, they can be places, they can be things, so these are

他们通常可以是 人、地方或东西

the objects.

这些都是 谓语（objects）

If this is confusing, let's look at some examples, maybe that will help.

如果有点乱，我们在看点儿例子会有些帮助

So, for example: "How come you"-is the subject-"take"-is the verb, and the object is-"the bus"?

再来个例子： How come you 这是主语 take是动词 谓语呢就是 the bus

"How come you take the bus?"

你怎么坐公车了？

This means the same thing as: "Why do you take the bus?"

意思就是 你为什么坐公车呢

So, here I actually have this written: "Why do you take the bus?"

所以，这儿有写： Why do you take the bus?

And you'll actually notice "How come" is easier in terms of grammar than "Why".

你可能会注意到 How come 比Why 语法上简单点。

If you look here: "Why do you take the bus?" you have this word, here: "do".

你看这儿 "Why do you take the bus?" 你得用 “do”

Okay?

明白不？

In other sentences we say: "Why does he" or "Why didn't he", but there's always something

另个句子 "Why does he" "Why didn't he"

like: "do", "does", "did", "didn't" here with "Why".

写这些"do", "does", "did", "didn't" 都要用于Why

And a lot of students forget to put this here.

很多学生忘了这些词

A lot of students will say: "Why you take the bus?"

他们可能会说： "Why you take the bus?"

But this is not correct English.

但是这是不对的。

For "Why" we always need something here.

对于 "Why" 我们总是需要什么在这儿

Now, the nice thing about "How come" is you don't need this.

现在，好消息就是用 How come 你不需要这些

Okay?

明白不？

If you look at "How come", if you can make an English sentence: "you take the bus", you

如果你看 How come，如果你可以造个英文句子 "you take the bus"

can change this into "Why" just by adding "How come".

你可以吧why换成how come

So, the structure of this is just like a regular English sentence.

所以这个结构就是个正常的英语句子

We have the subject, the verb, and the object, and then we just add "How come" at the front

有主语动词和宾语，然后我们把"How come"加

of it.

在它前面

So let's look at another example: "How come Toronto isn't the capital of Canada?"

再看看另一个例子："How come Toronto isn't the capital of Canada?"

So, again, we have: "How come", we have "Toronto" which is the subject, we have "isn't" which

再来看 我们有 "How come", "Toronto" 做主语 isn't做动词

is the verb, and we have "the capital", which is the object.

"the capital" 是宾语

So, if you want to make a regular sentence, I would just say: "Toronto isn't the capital",

如果你造个正常的句子，我们会说：: "Toronto isn't the capital",

we can just add "How come" to this, and then it becomes a question, meaning: "Why isn't

我们可以仅仅加上 "How come" 到这儿，它就变成了个问句

Toronto the capital?"

意思是 为什么多伦多不是首都？

"How come John didn't come?" Okay?

"How come John didn't come?" 一样的，明白不？

So here we have "How come" at the beginning, "John" which is the subject, and "didn't come",

这儿有 "How come" 在最前面 "John" 这是个主语 "didn't come"（动词）

because it's negative form we have "didn't" here, so this is the past, past tense.

因为这是否定 "didn't" 所以这是过去时态

"Didn't come" is the verb. Okay?

"Didn't come" 就是动词，明白不？

This sentence doesn't have an object.

这个句子没有宾语

Not all sentences in English need objects.

不是所有的句子在英语里都需要宾语

The main thing is that you have a subject and a verb.

主要的事儿是你得有主语和动词

Okay, so that might be a little confusing for you.

好了，现在你可能有点儿晕了。

Point here is: "How come" is easier than "Why" because all you need to do is make a basic

重点是"How come"比"Why" 简单点，因为你只需要造个简单的

sentence, and you add "How come" to the front of it. Okay?

句子，然后加上 "How come"在前面，懂了吧？

One last thing I wanted to say about "How come", you can also use "How come?" just on

最后一件我想告诉你关于 "How come"，你可以只说 "How come?" 就行了

its own.

Okay?

明白了吧？

Here I showed you how to make "How come", you know, combined with a sentence.

这里我展示了怎么用 "How come“ 造句，合着这些句子

You can also just use it, like, you know: "How come" and a question mark.

你可以同样这么用 "How come" 作为个疑问句的标志

So, for example, imagine we're having a conversation and I say to you: "Oh, John didn't come today."

所以，再举个例子，想象一下我们正有个对话然后我对你说： "Oh, John didn't come today."

You might be wondering: "Oh, why didn't John come?"

你估计想知道 哦，为什么John没来？

So you can just say to me: "How come?" which means: "Why didn't John come?"

所以你可以只是对我说： "How come?" ，意思就是 为啥John没来？

Okay? Or, you know: -"English is a great language."

或者你知道："English is a great language."

-"How come?"

咋回事儿？

Again, this just means: "Why?"

再一次说明，这意思就是 "Why?"

So it's a very easy thing to use, and I really, really recommend you start using this in your

它用起来很简单，我非常推荐你开始用这个

English because it will make you sound more like a native speaker, and it will improve

在你的英语里，因为它会让你的声音更像母语着，

your conversation or your conversational English.

它会改善你的对话和日常英语

So, I invite you to come subscribe to my YouTube channel.

所以我邀请你来订阅我的频道

There, you can find a lot of different videos on all sorts of different things English,

在这儿，你可以找到好多好多不一样的英语视频

including pronunciation, grammar, IELTS, vocabulary.

包括发音、语法、雅思、词汇

There're so many different resources we have.

我们有很多不一样的资源

I also invite you to check out our website at www.engvid.com.

当然，我也邀请你浏览我们的网站 www.engvid.com.

There, you can actually do some practice on this video and everything you learned today.

这里你可以真切的用来练习英语就想今天这个视频

We have a quiz there, and I highly, highly recommend you take our quiz.

我们还能提问，我强烈推荐你问个问题给我们

It's very good to practice what you learn so you can remember it. Okay?

它会非常好的锻炼你学到的，然后牢记住

You can also practice this maybe with a friend, or if you're taking English classes why not

你可以和你的朋友一起练习，如果你正在上一个英语课

try using this inside one of your classes with your teacher?

为啥不呐？试试挑一句跟你的老师讲讲

So, until next time, thank you for watching and take care.

好了，谢谢你的观看，下次见。