To Reason Why
There’s more than one way to ask why. How come? What for?

Listen longer
Slate Plus members get ad-free versions of all Slate podcasts, plus extra segments, bonus episodes, and more. Try it free today.
Advertisement
Episode Notes
Both How come? and What for? can be used to ask why, but native English speakers often employ them in subtly different ways. There’s a similar distinction in Russian, which has more than one word for why, depending on the context.
Podcast production by Mike Vuolo.