What goes around comes around means that the way you treat other people will sooner or later come back to you. Picture something travelling in a circle and returning to where it started. People usually say it about a bad deed that has come back to the person who did it, and less often about kindness. The saying is conversational: it fits a chat with friends or IELTS Speaking, but not an IELTS essay.
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What goes around comes around. (comment); because + what goes around comes around; UK also: what goes round comes round
- He was rude to everyone in the office, and now nobody helps him. What goes around comes around.
- She always shared her notes, so when she got ill, her classmates helped her catch up. What goes around comes around.
- Be honest with your customers, because what goes around comes around.
What changed
First versionHe never paid his friends back, and now nobody lends him money. What goes around come around.
RevisionHe never paid his friends back, and now nobody lends him money. What goes around comes around.
Both verbs need the -s ending. The whole clause what goes around is the subject of comes and counts as singular, so the second verb takes -s as well. Learners usually remember the first -s and lose the second, because the phrase is long and comes sits far from the beginning. There is one correction: come becomes comes.
The proverb you reap what you sow is close, but it is about the results of any of your own actions: He never studied and failed the exam. You reap what you sow. What goes around comes around is usually about how you treat people: the way you treat them is the way they end up treating you.
Your turn
Mark used to laugh at everyone's mistakes, and now the whole team laughs at his. I guess ___.
Show the answer
what goes around comes around — Mark used to laugh at other people's mistakes, and now people laugh at his. His own behaviour has come back to him, which is exactly what goes around comes around describes. Life goes on means that life continues; people say it to comfort someone after a setback, and it says nothing about paying for what you have done.
Write about someone you know whose own behaviour, good or bad, came back to them. Say what they did and what happened to them later, and finish with what goes around comes around.
My old boss never let anyone leave early, and now his new manager makes him stay late every Friday. What goes around comes around.
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