Which to use
“came” and “comes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #294
- “came” frequency rank
- #432
- “comes” frequency rank
- 726
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | came | comes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of come | third-person singular simple present indicative of come |
Where the eye mixes came and comes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. came (/keɪm/) and comes (/kʌmz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
came is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪm/. comes is at rank #432, tagged as averb, pronounced /kʌmz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 726, this pair ranks #528,911 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of came vs comes
Shared letters: cem. Private to "came": a. Private to "comes": os.
"came" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "comes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC