What does やってくる mean in this sentence?

Question

宿題をやってこなかったですか？

It's something like "Have you ended up not doing the homework?", I think, but what's the difference with just やらなかった?

What kind of てくる is this? Is it the same of 寒くなってくる?

Answer 1

It's just "and (then) come (here)". Only doing the homework is not enough; you have to bring the result (a notebook, etc) to the classroom.

English speakers may think this type of てくる is unnecessary, but it's important in Japanese. You probably know "to hold" is 持つ and "to bring" is either 持ってくる (literally "to hold and come") or 持っていく ("to hold and go") in Japanese, right? Likewise, you can say 宿題をやる when it's only about doing the homework, but you usually have to say 宿題をやってくる when it's said in a classroom. Even English speakers must distinguish "to hold" and "to bring" appropriately, so let's think of this as an extension of it.

Similar examples where てくる is almost mandatory:

• 買い物に行ってきます。
  I'll go shopping (and bring things home).
• 庭の様子を見てきます。
  I'll go check on the garden (and bring useful information here).
• 窓を閉めてきます。
  I'll close the windows (and come back here soon).

寒くなってくる describes a gradual temporal change, which is another important function of てくる but is not directly related to the sentence in question.