Bring vs Take
Take and bring are very commonly used words in English language that are also very confusing for those who are learning the language. These verbs with identical meanings can be troublesome for those whose mother tongue is not English. One thing that differentiates bring from take is the direction in which the two verbs operate. This article takes a closer look at the two verbs to come up with their differences and their correct usage.
Bring and take are semantically driven words. They are dependent upon the location and the direction of the speaker. Their meaning is dependent upon other verbs and their use in the sentence. Whether you should use ‘bring or take’ is, therefore, dependent upon your point of reference. When you are at a certain place, you can ask others to bring things to where you are. On the other hand, you yourself take things to the places that you go to. This means that you take things there and bring things here.
There are restaurants where you get take away food. You take food out to wherever you go. But when you sit inside this restaurant, the waiter brings food to your table. You ask your son to bring in the newspaper from the doorsteps while you ask him to take out the trash to the garbage truck. Take a look at the following examples to understand the difference between these two verbs.
• Take the baby from his cot and bring him to me
• Please take this coffee and bring a cup of tea for me
• Take your dog away as it looks threatening to me
• Take my credit card when you go for shopping
• Bring me a glass of water from the kitchen
Bring vs Take
• Use bring when the direction of the thing is towards the speaker.
• Use ‘take’ when the direction of movement is away from the speaker.
• You have take away restaurants, but waiter brings food to you when you are eating inside.
• The teacher would ask students to bring their homework to school while parents would ask their kids to take their lunch boxes with them to school.
• You take out umbrella with you when it is raining, but you bring the umbrella with you when returning home.
I read and hear the usage and meaning of bring and take routinely and regularly misapplied by those in the print, audio and visual media. Journalists and script writers are the worst culprits.