op af en komen

[falcybe]

Hoi,
Dit is een vraag over voorzetzels of scheidbare werkwoorden in die paar zinnen waar ik heb een klein probleem mee.

Kan ik moeilijk 'nee' zeggen? Er komen zoveel interessante dingen op mij af en de bedoeling van het leven, liefde, is toch ook een beetje interessante dingen meemaken.

Ik denk dat 'af' met komen gaat, om een scheidbaar werkwoord te vormen maar ik ben niet zeker want het Vandale woordenboek geeft de vertaling van afkomen als 1 come away, 2 come towards. Heen en weer voor een werkwoord?!

Maar, ik voel de twee zinnen als:

Can I find it hard to say no? So many interesting things approach/come to me and the meaning of life, love, is to, well, also have a few interesting experiences.

Wat denken jullie ervan?

Groetjes, Arthur

[Quetzal]

Afkomen does have several rather different meanings. I'd say there are three principal ones, but perhaps there are more.
1) The most literal meaning, getting off of something. For instance, imagine a mother whose children are being wild and climbing on walls or other things they're not supposed to climb on, then the mother might say "Kom daar van af!" In the same vein, there was a huge hit in the Netherlands in the sixties called "Kom Van Dat Dak Af" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssfeP977NxI - lots of youtube videos, really).

2) Colloquially, and perhaps counter-intuitively, to visit someone or something, or to drop by, in phrases like "Ik kom nog wel eens af", "Kom maar af wanneer je/ge zin hebt" and the like ("I'll drop by at some point", "Drop by whenever you feel like it").

3) Op iets/iemand afkomen, which I guess is really a phrasal verb of some sort, because the "op" is an essential part. This means, as you suspected, to come towards someone or something, literally or figuratively (for instance, "Daar zullen veel mensen op afkomen" = (literally) "Many people will come towards that", i.e. "Many people will be drawn to that", in the context of tourism, organising activities or the like).

[falcybe]

Dank je, Quetzel, en lekker u-tube!

[Joke]

The second meaning Quetzal mentions (to drop by), I've never heard before.
I'd say 'Ik kom nog wel eens langs/aan'.
Something typically Flemish maybe?

Joke

[Grytolle]

Something typically Flemish maybe?

Yes, and unfortunately disapproved of by Flemish "purists" (not a very well-suited term if you think about it)

http://vlaamswoordenboek.be/definities/term/afkomen

(the region label is way too restrictive, needs to be updated)

[Quetzal]

The second meaning Quetzal mentions (to drop by), I've never heard before.
I'd say 'Ik kom nog wel eens langs/aan'.
Something typically Flemish maybe?

Joke

Makes sense, colloquial things are often different. "Langskomen" is probably the best standard-language way of putting it, because "aankomen" in that meaning of the word is the opposite, i.e. not used at all in Flanders.