student asking question

Does the meaning change if I change the "come along" to just "come"? What does "come along" mean here?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

In this case, "come along" means something similar to "make an appearance." Thus, we can understand "men are going to come along and wanna teach you things" to mean "men are going to appear (in your life) and want to teach you things." If we were to replace "come along" with "come" here, the intended meaning of the expression would be lost. "Come" means the simple act of moving nearer to something, so it is not quite appropriate in this context. Ex: You can't just wait for good things to come along. You have to work for them. Ex: A charming young man came along and swept her off her feet.

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