Which to use
“come” and “comes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #161
- “come” frequency rank
- #432
- “comes” frequency rank
- 593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | come | comes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To move nearer to the point of perspective. | third-person singular simple present indicative of come |
Where the eye mixes come and comes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. come (/kʌm/) 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 extra letter(s) - “come” sits inside “comes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
come is recorded at frequency rank #161, classified as averb, pronounced /kʌm/. 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 593, this pair ranks #529,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of come vs comes
Shared letters: cemo. Private to "come": -. Private to "comes": s.
"come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "comes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC