[Vocabulary] Come December

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englishhobby

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Is the phrase like "come December (May, June etc.)" correct? Can it be used, say, by a lecturer at university when talking to students? Or does it sound very informal?

She'll have been living in the US for 19 years come December.
 

Rover_KE

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It's fine.

Rover
 

TheParser

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Is the phrase like "come December (May, June etc.)" correct? Can it be used, say, by a lecturer at university when talking to students? Or does it sound very informal?

She'll have been living in the US for 19 years come December.


NOT A TEACHER


Hello, Englishhobby:

(1) I notice that you fear that your sentence may seem "informal."

(2) In my opinion, I think that many people (especially young

people at American universities) would feel that it was formal.

After all, it is the subjunctive, and most people feel the subjunctive

is formal. Hopefully, most young people say "If I WERE the president,

...," but no doubt many feel that "If I WAS the president ..." is just

fine and dandy.

(3) According to one of my favorite books, A Grammar of the English

Language by Professor George O. Curme (which was written in 1931 --

a fact that I am proud to announce),

"She will be eighteen years old come Easter" = when Easter shall

come, i.e., Let Easter come.

(4) And according to the revered Mr. Henry W. Fowler in his A

Dictionary of Modern English Usage, that kind of sentence was already

considered old-fashioned or even pretentious in Mr. Fowler's time (he

wrote his beloved book in the 1920's!!!).

(5) The bottom line:

Although I have not been in a university classroom since the 1950's (!!!),

I think that I am on good grounds to state that expressions such as

"Come December" [which I personally love] will not be greeted by most

American college students with much enthusiasm. They might even think

that you are trying to be a snob, i.e., that you want to flaunt your

knowledge of elegant English. I think that you would be safer just saying

in plain English: By December, she'll have been living in the U.S.A. for 19

years.


Sincerely yours,


James
 

philo2009

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Is the phrase like "come December (May, June etc.)" correct? Can it be used, say, by a lecturer at university when talking to students? Or does it sound very informal?

She'll have been living in the US for 19 years come December.

I would say that it is informal but rather old-fashioned. I certainly would not use it in formal/academic writing.
 

englishhobby

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Thank you. I just wanted to learn a "new" English phrase, but now I see that I'd better not. :-D
 

5jj

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Thank you. I just wanted to learn a "new" English phrase, but now I see that I'd better not. :-D
Please don't give up. It's just that you came across one that even native speakers don't always agree on. We even had a discusssion in another threrad about whether 'come' could be considered as a preposition.
 

BobK

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I would say that it is informal but rather old-fashioned. I certainly would not use it in formal/academic writing.
Not in writing maybe, but it would sound to me perfectly OK.

When something becomes old-fashioned, fashion varies from place to place. And in Liverpool in the 1960s it was considered informa; enough to be used in the title of a popular song - 'Come tomorrow' (I'd guess it was sung by Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas. They may have been covering an older song, but still - even if that is the case - a large number of teenagers bought it).

b

PS No, it was Mamfred Mann (not from Liverpool). All the same.... :)
 
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BobK

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Typo (due to assimilation from the 'Mann'? - or maybe just proximity on keyboard). :up:

b
 

philo2009

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Perhaps we should contact Paul Jones to settle the issue once and for all...:)
 

englishhobby

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Thanks to all the participants of the discussion! (I guess it sounds formal, but it's somehow easier for me, being a non-native speaker, to use more formal language) :):)
 
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