Coming and Going
Lingua Franca 2014-02-19
Summary:
The Beatles during the filming of Help! (image via flickr)
I heard a Brazilian iron-ore magnate speaking on a BBC news program about how he had become so rich, and he said that at one point “the price of iron ore came from $10 a ton to $180 a ton.” I realized that there was a subtle mistake in English usage here: Even if the price is still $180 now, we do not say that the price came from $10 to $180; we say the price went from $10 to $180. But why?
Come is standardly used for motion (including me...