{"id":10141,"date":"2021-01-04T19:30:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=10141"},"modified":"2023-08-25T08:07:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T08:07:53","slug":"worse-comes-to-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/worse-comes-to-worst\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Worse comes to worst&#8221; vs. &#8220;worst comes to worst&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><h2>&ldquo;Worse comes to worst&rdquo; or &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p><strong>&ldquo;Worse comes to worst&rdquo; and &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo; are both correct. In fact, &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; is a bit more logical. It means &ldquo;should the worst-case scenario happen.&rdquo; Yet, the original expression was, &ldquo;if the worst come to the worst,&rdquo; which later changed to &ldquo;if worst comes to worst.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ergo, you could use either one, and you would be correct.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">If worse comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll just pull an all-nighter to finish the project.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><i>If worst comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll just pull an all-nighter to finish the project.<\/i><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\nBoth of the above examples are equally valid.<\/p>\n<h2>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<h2>&ldquo;If the worst come to the worst&rdquo; &mdash; Evolution<\/h2>\n<p>As mentioned earlier, the original expression was &ldquo;if the worst come to the worst.&rdquo; This is an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/no-pun-intended-meaning\/\">old idiom<\/a><\/strong> that has been around since the 1600s.<\/p>\n<p>One of the first known usages can be found in Thomas Nashe&rsquo;s 1596 pamphlet entitled, &ldquo;Have With You to Saffron-Walden.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In it, Nashe wrote, &ldquo;if the worst come to the worst, a good swimmer may do much.&rdquo; For reference, he was comparing dying from drowning to dying from burning.<\/p>\n<p>Now, there are a couple of things to notice here. First, there is the use of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/what-is-an-article-in-grammar-answer\/\">definite article<\/a><\/strong> &ldquo;the.&rdquo; Second, rather than writing &ldquo;come&rdquo; in the present simple form, the original idiom had it in the subjunctive.<\/p>\n<p>In the expression, &ldquo;come to&rdquo; meant &ldquo;to result in.&rdquo; For instance, when you say, &ldquo;the endeavor came to nothing,&rdquo; you are effectively saying that the endeavor resulted in nothing.<\/p>\n<p>So, the expression could be rewritten as &ldquo;if the worst results in the worst.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>If that still doesn&rsquo;t make much sense to you, then consider that the first &ldquo;worst&rdquo; looks at the &ldquo;worst&rdquo; theoretical possibility, while the second &ldquo;worst&rdquo; discusses the &ldquo;worst&rdquo; practical possibility.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-after-so\/\">So<\/a><\/strong>, rewriting the original idiom again, we get &ldquo;if the worst theoretical possibility results in the worst actual possibility.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Does it make sense <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-yet\/\">yet<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, these two main differences between the original and current forms are the definite article and the subjunctive form of the verb. Over time, these elements changed, and the expression became &ldquo;(if) worst comes to worst.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/how-long-is-a-while\/\">with the passage of time<\/a><\/strong>, the more logical &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; gained popularity.<\/p>\n<p>Why is &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; more logical?<\/p>\n<p>Think of it this way: things can exist on a spectrum from &ldquo;best&rdquo; to &ldquo;worst.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>As things approach the &ldquo;worst&rdquo; part of the spectrum, they have to pass by &ldquo;bad&rdquo; and &ldquo;worse&rdquo; first.<\/p>\n<p>So, it makes sense to say that things have moved from &ldquo;bad&rdquo; to &ldquo;worse&rdquo; or from &ldquo;worse&rdquo; to &ldquo;worst.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Ergo, &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the Cambridge Dictionary makes an interesting distinction.<\/p>\n<p>It points out that &ldquo;if the worst comes to the worst&rdquo; is popular in British English, whereas &ldquo;if worse comes to worst&rdquo; is more of an American variant.<\/p>\n<p>To be more accurate, both &ldquo;if worse comes to worst&rdquo; and &ldquo;if worst comes to worst&rdquo; are acceptable in American English.<\/p>\n<p>This might give you an idea of when to use each option.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10147\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg\" alt=\"Worse comes to worst vs. worst comes to worst\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-735x1103.jpg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-223x335.jpg 223w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-231x347.jpg 231w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-347x520.jpg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-427x640.jpg 427w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-512x768.jpg 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10147 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201000%201500'%3E%3Crect%20width='1000'%20height='1500'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Worse comes to worst vs. worst comes to worst\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst.jpg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-735x1103.jpg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-223x335.jpg 223w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-231x347.jpg 231w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-347x520.jpg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-427x640.jpg 427w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Worse-comes-to-worst-vs.-worst-comes-to-worst-512x768.jpg 512w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Worse comes to worst &mdash; Examples<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a couple of examples of the expression &ldquo;Worse comes to worst&rdquo; in action:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If we can&rsquo;t book the main venue for the conference, we&rsquo;ll look for another location. Worse comes to worst, we&rsquo;ll hold it online.<\/li>\n<li>I hope to catch the 5:30 train home, but if worse comes to worst, there&rsquo;s another one at 7:00.<\/li>\n<li>I&rsquo;m applying for jobs in my field, but if worse comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll take a temporary gig to pay the bills.&rdquo;<\/li>\n<li>I&rsquo;ve studied hard for this exam Worse comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll retake it next semester.<\/li>\n<li>We&rsquo;re waiting for the test results. Worse comes to worst, we&rsquo;ll consult specialists and explore all treatment options.<\/li>\n<li>I&rsquo;ll try to bake a homemade lemon cake for the party. If worse comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll buy one from the store.<\/li>\n<li>I want to invite all my friends to the picnic. Worse comes to worst, if it rains, we can move it indoors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Worst comes to worst &mdash; Examples<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a couple of examples of the expression &ldquo;Worst comes to worst&rdquo; in action:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have enough savings to survive at least a few months. Worst comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll move back in with my parents.<\/li>\n<li>I&rsquo;ll try to fix the plumbing issue myself. Worst comes to worst, I&rsquo;ll call a professional plumber.<\/li>\n<li>We should arrive in time for the meeting. Worst comes to worst, we can join via video call.<\/li>\n<li>The weather looks good for the outdoor concert. Worst comes to worst, we&rsquo;ll just have to cancel it.<\/li>\n<li>I&rsquo;m planting multiple types of crops this year. Worst comes to worst, at least one variety should succeed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&ldquo;Worse comes to worse&rdquo; &mdash; The only wrong option<\/h2>\n<p>Even though both &ldquo;worse comes to worse&rdquo; and &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo; are correct, there is one third option that people have been using, and it is completely incorrect. It is &ldquo;worse comes to worse.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The problem with &ldquo;worse comes to worse&rdquo; is that it makes little to no sense, which is why it is a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>You might argue that &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t make much sense either, but the use of the superlative clearly highlights that we are talking about the worst case scenario.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-however\/\">However<\/a><\/strong>, the use of the comparative in &ldquo;worse comes to worse&rdquo; does not perform the same function.<\/p>\n<p>Why do native people make this <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/common-comma-mistakes\/\">mistake<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Worse&rdquo; and &ldquo;worst&rdquo; are phonetically very similar, making it easy to confuse the two. This is also why a lot of people are uncertain whether it&rsquo;s &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; or &ldquo;worst comes to worst.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>If you really want to see how phonetically similar words can confuse people, take a look at the word &ldquo;expresso.&rdquo; In actuality, there is no such word, and the correct word is an &ldquo;espresso&rdquo; coffee.<\/p>\n<p>However, as espresso and expresso are phonetically similar, it&rsquo;s not that much of a leap to go from one word to another, especially if the speaker isn&rsquo;t paying attention to how each word is pronounced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;Worse comes to worst&rdquo; or &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo; &ldquo;Worse comes to worst&rdquo; and &ldquo;worst comes to worst&rdquo; are both correct. In fact, &ldquo;worse comes to worst&rdquo; is a bit more logical. It means &ldquo;should the worst-case scenario happen.&rdquo; Yet, the original expression was, &ldquo;if the worst come to the worst,&rdquo; which later changed to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[285,284,283],"class_list":["post-10141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-worse-come-to-worse","tag-worse-comes-to-worst","tag-worst-comes-to-worst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10141"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26846,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141\/revisions\/26846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}