「how come」は「どうして？」や「なぜ」という意味になります。「how come」は「why」とほぼ同じ意味ですが、「why」よりもう少しくだけた感じです。実は、「how come」は「how did it come about that」を略して、19世紀から使うようになりました。
「how come」の使い方が少々難しいです。「why」を使う時に続く語句の順番は疑問文です。例えば、「why are you eating my cake? – なぜ俺のケーキを食べているの？」。でも「how come」を使う時は疑問文なのに疑問文の順番を使いません。例えば、「how come you are eating my cake?」と言います。違いが見えますか？ 「you are」の順番が逆です。「how come」はとてもネイティブっぽいフレーズなので、よく使って下さい。しかし、「how come」を使う時に言葉の順番に気を付けて下さい。以下に「how come」を使う例文があります。
（皆さんが英語の発音練習が出来るように、例文を読み上げて、録音しました。録音したファイルは以下にあります。）
How come you’re here?
ねぇ、どうしてここにいるの？
How come you’re so quiet today?
なぜ今日あなたはそんなに静なの？
How come this food is so expensive?
どうしてこの食べ物がそんなに高い？
I think this website is really interesting! Keep up the good work.
I’d like to ask you a few questions. What do you think about English educational system in Japan? There are many people, myself included, in Japan out there who are not able to speak/write/use proper English despite the fact that they have been learning English since they were in junior high-school. Personally, I think it is because we don’t get more chances to communicate with native speakers and to experience more of other countries….
Pardon my English. I wish I could speak more English than I do now… Thank you for reading my comments.
Hi there,
Your English is amazing! You have obviously studied very hard. I think that English education is not that good in Japan, but I think that it is better than most Japanese people think. It seems to me that most Japanese people can speak better English than Korean people for instance. Of course, Japanese is so different to English I think that it is a very difficult language for Japanese people to learn.
Hi Luke.
This is very interesting article.
“How come” is one of the first phrase I learned in the states. And I used it a lot.
I haven’t know that It came from “How did it come about that”.
I want to know more about native speakers English which Japanese never learn in the school.
Thank you for interesting and useful blog every time.