Come about means to happen or arise. It's most often used when asking or telling how and why something came to be: How did this situation come about? means 'How did things end up like this?'
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how/why + something + came about; come about + through/because of + noun; come about + when + clause
- Can you explain how the delay came about? The client wants a clear answer.
- The idea for the app came about during a late-night chat with my flatmate.
- Many of these changes came about because students complained about the old timetable.
What changed
First versionNobody knows how did the idea come about.
RevisionNobody knows how the idea came about.
Here the question is tucked inside a statement: nobody knows how the idea appeared. In a direct question you'd say How did the idea come about?, but inside a longer sentence, after how, English uses normal statement word order with no did: how the idea came about.
Happen is the most general word for 'take place': What happened? Come about asks about the story and the causes behind something, so it usually appears next to how or why. To ask about something that has just occurred, people don't say What came about? They say What happened?
Your turn
Nobody is quite sure how the misunderstanding ___, since everyone got the same email.
Show the answer
came about — The misunderstanding is something that happened, and there's no object after the gap, so came about is needed. Brought about means 'caused', and it needs an object saying what was caused: The new timetable brought about a lot of changes.
Write about how a tradition started in your family, company or group of friends. Name the tradition and say how it all began.
Our Friday pizza night came about when we moved house three years ago and were too tired to cook.
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