One moves toward the speaker, the other moves away from the speaker.
"Come" implies movement toward where the speaker or listener is. When someone invites you, they say "come here" because you move toward their position.
Can you come to my office?
Come here! I need to show you something.
She came to the party late.
"Go" implies movement away from where the speaker is. When you say "I'm going to the store", you are moving away from your current location.
I will go to the store tomorrow.
Let's go to the beach!
He went home after work.
Common mistake
Trick to remember it
Quick rule
Did you know?
"Come" and "go" are two of the most irregular verbs in English. "Go" has the most surprising suppletive form in the language: its past tense is "went", which actually comes from a completely different verb ("wend" = to travel). It is one of the rare cases where the past tense of a verb comes from a totally different lexical root. "Come" is also irregular: come / came / come, the same form for both the infinitive and the past participle.
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
"Are you going to the party?" "Yes! I'll _____ with you if that's okay."
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
"Is anyone at the shop?" "I don't know — I'll _____ and check."
Exercise 3 · Form the word
One moves something toward you, the other moves it away from you.
"Above" is at a higher level without contact; "over" implies covering, movement, or crossing.
"Actually" corrects or contrasts an assumption; "really" intensifies or confirms.
'Currently' means 'at the present time'; 'actually' means 'in reality', not 'nowadays'.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy