I was watching television last night and a police officer was dragging some guy out from under the car and he said, "How come you did that for?", when asking him why he crawled under there to hide.

I've never heard this phrase before. "How come"... it sounds so foreign. Anyone else heard this phrase before?

I have.

hell, i use it regularly.

and i'm sure you've heard that song, "how come u don't call me anymore"?

you've never heard it?

good lawd.

i suppose it's better than "why come"?

"why come u don't call me no more?"

Anxiety said:

I have heard that song! Never put it together and it doesn't sound foreign in there... perhaps I've heard it numerous times and never realized it. Damn...

I kept repeating it last night, over and over... thinking... it makes no sense to me.

I have heard it. It's a midwestern slang term for "why".

DOPEE said:

Apparently I have heard it... Prince used it... never gave it a thought... but, I really can't remember anyone ever using it in conversation with me. It's always exactly that... "why".

It just sounded so odd hearing that cop saying it last night. I was like... "WTF?!"... "How come you did that for?"

Still sounds funny to me.

I use ALL of the time and I'm from California.

Perhaps it sounds funny to you Azure because of the way it was used. "How come you did that for?" isn't grammatically correct.

Natsume said:

Maybe... I mean... I'm a bona fide hick and every-little-ole-thang and I still was like... WHAT?! Can't even understand my own people.

AzureStarr said:

what show were you watching? COPS? I love the tranny trucker!

Natsume said:

Yes.

AzureStarr said:

Natsume said:

Hush. :p

Jesus H Farking Christo EVERYBODY USES IT!

IceTen said:

Not everyone!

I was out to dinner with some friends earlier. Putting aside the one that said I should have been born blonde for even asking, two others have heard it before... of those two, one hears the phrase frequently... he works at the college here and says it's used all the time, the other hasn't heard it recently but has heard it... and, thankfully, another said... what?! He'd never remembered hearing it either.

I did check out dictionary.com and it's listed there. So, I dunno... whatever. It still sounds funny to me. At least now I know I'm not alone...

How come is in very common usage here in Australia too. 25 years ago when my family came here from Europe my parents were perplexed at this expression - obviously not taught in english classes!

How Come is short for "How did it come to pass?" or some derivative, I suspect.