妈妈经常打电话来(给我)。 (给我 is optional) Mom often calls me. literal: Mom would often make calls (that would come in) to me. Note though, the literal translation is just for understanding purposes, nobody is going to translate it that way. 妈妈经常打电话。 Mom is often on the phone. literal: Mom often makes telephone calls (could be to anyone, myself included)

1)Apart from the meaning "come", "来" is also a direction, meaning "towards me/to me". The sentence doesn't mean "mom often comes by calling", which makes no sense in either Chinese or English. Yes, it is the same as "妈妈经常给我打电话". 2)Yes. This is the correct interpretation. But there should usually be a purpose when someone calls around, either trying to organize something or to find some information. You need to specify it in the sentence so people would know mom isn't crazy.

来 means the direction of calling: from mom TO me. It is just a habit.

The 来 in your example often gets lost (omitted) when translated into English but it basically means that it's an incoming call -- your mother calling you, you're the person answering it. manybuddies did a good job explaining it.

Yeah, it means "my mum often calls me". I see this kind of sentence come up in novels every now and then. When 來 comes at the end of a sentence, it is often a more informal way of your expressing yourself. The standard way is to write 我媽媽經常給我打電話. Laurence