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Hello and welcome to another Daily Dose of English.
Come across is a phrasal verb with two different meanings.
It can mean to find something by chance.
I came across the book at a library in York.
I came across an old friend down by the canal today. I hadn't seen him for years. Not since we were at school together.
If you come across a newsagent, can you get me a copy of that magazine?
Come across can also mean to appear to be something or to make an impression on someone.
Your son comes across as a very sensible young man. You must be very proud.
In the interview he came across as a complete idiot. Needless to say, he didn't get the job.
I hope I didn't come across as rude. I only said it as a joke.
Come across is inseparable. That is you cannot separate the verb, come, from the particle, across, by placing an object between them.
Separable phrasal verbs like switch off can have an object between them. Switch the light off. Switch off the light. Switch it off. Come across cannot be separated in this way.
Come across is transitive and needs an object. If I say, I came across, you will ask "Came across what?" I have to use an object. I came across a book.
I hope you enjoyed this Daily Dose of English and I'll see you again soon for another one.
Goodbye for now.
And two more likely fellers that you'd make Sergeant, I hadn't come across.
Every evening at 6.30, my 'Pop', as I called him, would come across the garden to take me to bed and read me a story.
I have come across not one company which incorporates the pursuit of honest profits with social awareness, which provides a vision for themselves and their workers.
I need to be able to read outputs of a maximum of 100A (this may seem high but in my work you come across this sort of output).
It can reach a size of 200mm and although not usually aggressive towards other fish, it is not averse to eating any small fish it may come across during its night time forays.
It is pretty rare to come across a football manager brave enough to hold up his hands the day after a beating and invite criticism.
It was not a theory to be come across elsewhere.
It was, said Monty Python member Terry Jones yesterday of the death of his colleague Graham Chapman, the worst case of party pooping he have ever come across.
Never had Berret come across a case with so many promising openings that led nowhere.
On one journey he came across a room with sixteen doors leading off it, all locked.
That means many midwives will come across a deaf mother only occasionally.
The second critical comment I came across in the Scrapbook was George Steiner's statement from the Sunday Times in 1967.
'They just don't come across as remotely manufactured although soon they'll probably become too aware to be good any more.
But if you come across as a push-over, albeit a likeable one (but not someone who commands respect), study and use the control tactics.
Clarke came across as a bit of a lad, which I suppose is what he wanted.
He came across as a very angst-ridden man.'
He came across as a weak, indecisive leader wracked by doubt and in danger of drowning in the complexities of the problems that faced him.
He was physically attractive and highly photogenic; on the television screen he came across as a man of warmth and charm.
He was, and is, a distinctly affable chap, whereas I came across as cold, prickly and generally difficult.
I come across as being intolerant because I have a different sense of what is important these days.
I don't come across as someone who's like a dirty raincoat person.
I mean, there was no way I was going to come across as an anal retentive simply because I had pride in my appearance.
I reckoned that the Queen would probably have agreed with me — she'd always come across as a decent sort.
I think one of the justifiable criticisms of Radio 3 — though not of my predecessor — is that it has come across as being too much about itself.
I wasn't entirely convinced by the 'unique' bit: it came across as a slightly better than average bottled beer, with possibly a stronger flavour than some.
In fact, I could swear your image-maker wants me to come across as a free spirit, someone who doesn't need the convention of a male escort — and I don't.
Isabella can very easily come across as a prig.
It wouldn't come across as very credible if I trusted you a third time.
It's not like I'm trying to get people on my side, but I do come across as likeable and vulnerable on stage.
Last night as the Yugoslavs camped out at St Peter's School in Northampton, Mr Smith, 52, said: 'I believe these are the first refugees to come across as a group.
Like Maxwell, smoothy Hunter tried to come across as everyone's friend, especially at Christmas when, dressed as Santa, he handed gifts to children of staff.
Mark you, in the letter she does come across as a misery guts.
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17 videos
Is it wrong to say "I came unexpectedly across a newsagent." It's not splitting an infinitive, but if the verb is inseparable, it seems shady... And yet it makes sense...
Thanks!
EarlZetland 9 months ago
@EarlZetland Thanks for watching and for your question. "Unexpectedly" is an adverb not an object and so does not "separate" the verb from its particle. However, I'd say it was more natural to use the adverb after the object: "I came across a newsagent unexpectedly" or less commonly before the verb, "I unexpectedly came across a newsagent." You can also place the adverb at the head of the sentence to emphasise the manner: "Unexpectedly, I came across a newsagent."
DailyDoseOfEnglish 9 months ago