Avoid common mistakes in English 3: Coming and Going

When talking about their travels and commuting I often hear non-native speakers of English incorrectly use coming when they should be using going. So, which is the right one to use?

This is where it gets slightly complicated, because it depends on factors such as

The place you’re going to
Where you are
Whether the person you’re speaking to is already at that place (or likely to be there)

Basically

You go to see people
People come to see you

So, if you’ve failed to arrive at work one day the boss might call or text you (remember here the place where you work is often just referred to as “work”)

“Are you coming in to work today?” (the boss is at work so you are coming to them)
Or, maybe, you are making a call to explain the situation
“I’m really ill, I won’t be coming in to work today”
(the choice of coming or going is from the perspective of the person you’re talking to, in this case the person who you are talking to is/will be at work, this even applies if you are leaving a message on an answering machine or talking to someone who won’t be going in to work until later)

Suppose you are talking to your friend (who isn’t connected to your workplace)

“I’m not going in to work today”
(In this case you might consider going to see your friend and say to them: “I can come and see you instead”)

Finally, you may have heard a few expressions relation to coming and/or going

“I don’t know whether I’m coming or going”.
You would use this expression if you were confused and had too many things to think about. The idea being that a very confused person wouldn’t be able to decide if they weren’t coming or going.
“I can’t keep up with his comings and goings”
Here comings and goings means general movements and activities.

Hopefully, now that you’re armed with that information, you’ll be able to correctly tell people whether you’re coming or going.