Come back / Go back / Return

So what is it we are doing?
Are we GOING BACK, COMING BACK, or can we simply say RETURNING?

For some reason, it seems so easy and natural for me to choose the correct form because it is intuitive. I have grown up with a sense of what it is TO COME and TO GO, so it is hard to stop and try to understand why it is so counter-intuitive for non-native speakers.

I remember mentioning in one of my early posts, how hard it is to `Gender` things in Portuguese (adding an `a` or an `o` to the end of nouns like Marcelo, carro (male) and Marcela, mesa (female)), as is done in many Latin-based languages. For speakers of these languages, it is as intuitive for them to understand `Gender` as it is for me to understand COME and GO.

So let`s begin.

GO - A place we want to reach, to get to, a destination.
    -  I am GOING home late today. When I get home I will order Pizza.
(I am not at home, I am somewhere else so I have to GO home from where I am)
    -  I am GOING BACK to bed. I am still tired.
(I am not in bed, perhaps I have just left it, but I want to RETURN to my bed.)

COME - To me, from somewhere else to where I am.
    -  He is COMING home late today. When he gets home, I will order Pizza.
(I am at home and my brother is somewhere else so he has to COME home from where he is.

    -  Are you COMING BACK to bed. I am still tired?
(I am in bed, perhaps my partner has just left it, but I want my partner to RETURN to my bed.)

In these examples, I have tried to make the idea of COME and GO as simple as possible. The use of COME or GO depends on how the information you are giving relates to YOU or the TARGET Subject.

Consider the following;
    -  `Sorry Mum, I am only GOING home when I am ready.`
(The TARGET Subject is ME - I could be going anywhere, and eventually it will be home.)
    -  `Sorry Mum, I am only COMING home when I am ready.
(The TARGET Subject is MUM - I am replying to Mum asking me `When are you COMING home?`)

Now, what about the BACK.
    -  When I COME BACK FROM New york, I will phone you.
(Here we are talking about a future event where I am not in New York at the moment but expect to go there soon, then RETURN TO the place of speaking. Note the matching FROM.)

    -  When I GO BACK TO New York, I will study more.
(In this case I WAS in New York and am not there now. I intend to RETURN TO New York and hope to study more once I am there. Note the matching TO.)

The translation from Portuguese includes BACK, while there is always confusion as to whether to use COME or GO as in COME BACK or GO BACK. (BACK in this structure is a preposition.)
BACK by itself can NOT be used.
    -  I need to BACK home just doesn't work. You MUST use GO BACK or COME BACK.
(BACK can NOT be used as a verb in this context.)

    -  In the famous phrase - 'I'll be back' - BACK is used as an adjective in the same way as HOME in 'I'll be home' and HAPPY in 'I'll be HAPPY'

When unsure of which option to use, GO BACK or COME BACK, it is much simpler to use RETURN.

In all of the above examples, RETURN works perfectly well