Come to do

Question

Hello,Can "here is what I came to do" mean "here is what I decided to do" ?Or does the sentence mean that someone literally came and said "here is what I came to do"?Thanks!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

MustAsk Hello,Can "here is what I came to do" mean "here is what I decided to do" ?Or does the sentence mean that someone literally came and said "here is what I came to do"?Thanks!

This sentence should be followed by another sentence that elaborates what the speaker is going to do, thus:

Here is what I came to do. I'm going to reorganize this department so that we can all work more efficiently.

'here' points to what follows. It's a demonstrative, as when you point to a sugar bowl and say, "Here's the sugar". In my experience, 'this' is more common in this context.

This is what I came to do. I'm going to reorganize ....

(You can also say [Here/This] is what I have come to do.)

CJ

MustAsk · Answer

Thanks for your reply, but does it literally mean that someone came to the department and said "This is what I came to do. I'm going to reorganize...." or does it mean that the person came to a conclusion that he is going to reorganize... ?

CalifJim · Answer

MustAskThanks for your reply, but does it literally mean that someone came to the department and said "This is what I came to do. I'm going to reorganize...." or does it mean that the person came to a conclusion that he is going to reorganize... ?

I would take it as the first — not a conclusion. In the case of a conclusion it would be This is what I decided to do.

This is what I came to do. I'm going to ...
~
[I am here / I have arrived here] for the purpose of doing this: I'm going to ...
________________

It occurs to me now that there is another usage of "come to do" which means "in the end, ... DID".

Here is what I came to do. I reorganized the department.
~
This is what I ended up doing: I reorganized ....
~
In the end, what I did was this: I reorganized ....

This is an unusual, somewhat old-fashioned and formal expression, but maybe you read something about it in a dictionary or grammar book and you think it means 'decided'. That's not exactly the meaning, but it's similar.

CJ

MustAsk · Answer

Thanks!

Come to do

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