Come With

Come With Come With Come With By Maeve Maddox â€Å"I’m going to the movies. Do you want to come with?† A reader in England has noticed that this elliptical use of â€Å"come with† on British television and doesn’t care for it: I find it to be an expression I prefer not to use, as it sounds grammatically wrong and very odd, even though, were I in Germany, I would automatically and happily use the equivalent expression Kommen sie mit. Do you know the age of the English Come with? There is an example in the OED of a 19th century elliptical use of with without an object: in slang use, in reference to liquor means mixed with sugar, having sugar added; usually in phrases hot or cold with. 1836  Ã‚   Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 84  Ã‚   Two glasses of rum-and-water ‘warm with- ’. 1843  Ã‚   R. S. Surtees Handley Cross I. x. 202  Ã‚   Fatch me up a glass of cold sherry negus with. 1843  Ã‚   R. S. Surtees Handley Cross I. xv. 322  Ã‚   ‘Take a glass of brandy,’ said she ‘hot with? or cold without?’ Where did the modern usage originate? The reader’s mention of German â€Å"Kommen sie mit,† points to the answer. Large numbers of German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch immigrants to the U.S. settled in the midwest, near the Great Lakes. â€Å"Kommen sie mit† migrated into the local English dialect. English is, after all, a Germanic language. Old English mid, meaning â€Å"with,† survived into Middle English and was sometimes spelled mit. Many American speakers dislike the usage as well: Why do people say, â€Å"Can I come with† and â€Å"Do you want to go with†? That â€Å"with† hanging on the end of the sentence has always driven me crazy. That reaction seems a bit extreme. My Chicago relations say it. I find it odd, but endearing. It is, however, a regionalism that has not acquired the status of standard English. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Examples of Passive Voice (And How To Fix Them)Between vs. In Between50 Synonyms for "Song"