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I know 'come tuesday' or 'come spring' are correct (or I think I do). But can I say for example 'come the end of the world' or, when I'm driving my car and a tire blows out, 'come one of the tires blow out'?

I'm not a native English speaker and google isn't helping one bit. So I'm hoping someone can shine some light onto this mysterious 'come-business' for me.

Thanks in advance!

Roger VD
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    You can say "come the end of the world", because that is guaranteed, at least metaphorically. But you can't say "come a tire blow-out", because that's not guaranteed. You'd have to say "should a tire blow out", or "when a tire blows out". – Dan Bron Jul 25 '20 at 14:54
  • Further to what Dan said, you wouldn't say "Come X" if X has already happened, it refers to a future occurrence of X, so it wouldn't make sense to say it about your tyre blowing out at the time it blows out. – nnnnnn Jul 25 '20 at 15:25
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    This is another archaic verb inversion. Just as Be he alive or be he dead means If he is alive or if he is dead (we'd use whether in Modern English), come hell or high water means if hell comes or if high water comes. For something more likely to occur, like next Saturday, one can use the factive when instead of if. But it's not the way normal folks talk any more. – John Lawler Jul 25 '20 at 16:14
  • Some people still say things like He fired the bazooka and blew them to kingdom come.** But that usage is something of a "frozen form". – FumbleFingers Jul 25 '20 at 16:55
  • Sometimes used in the "I wish" sense, as in "come the revolution..." – Weather Vane Jul 25 '20 at 17:13
  • The days of the week are always capitalized in English. As a learner of the English language, I think that our sister site — [ell.se] would be a more suitable place to improve your proficiency. – David Jul 25 '20 at 17:13
  • There's a folk tune called 'Seventeen come Sunday' - but this is, as John says, an archaic usage - you don't need to learn how to use it yourself. – Kate Bunting Jul 25 '20 at 18:38
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    @WeatherVane I don't think that "come the revolution" is a wish. People who say "come the revolution" in a serious (as opposed to a humourous) way believe in the inevitability of the Marxist Permanent Proletarian Revolution just as much as fundamentalist Christians believe in the reality of The Day of Judgement. If the speaker believes in the revolution the phrase is as much a definite future occurrence to them as "next Sunday" is to the rest of us. – BoldBen Jul 25 '20 at 21:21

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