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While I was watching Game of Thrones, I encountered with the sentence below:

They'll both be dead come winter.

I am a little bit confused with the the usage of "come winter". Is this structure has a name? Is it formal? Can it be used in formal, written English?

I do not think I have encountered this structure before. Could you give another example to this structure?

Onur
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  • I can't help with what it's called, but it's a standard, albeit self-important, usage. Back in the 1960's, people would say, "Come the revolution, things'll change." There is an old English folk song "Seventeen Come Sunday." ("How old are you, my pretty fair maid? How old are you, my honey? She answered me right cheerfully, I'm seventeen come Sunday.") As for formal English, that's a question of how formal. It's not slang, but I would call it a self-consciously poetic affectation probably best suppressed in formal writing. – remarkl Feb 18 '19 at 17:10
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    Possible duplicate of Is "come sunrise" right? From a comment there, it's a concessive subjunctive,* which requires inversion.* – FumbleFingers Feb 18 '19 at 17:29

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