Bring or Take
Do you bring
food to a party, or do you take food to a party? The terms bring and take are
often confused, and for good reason. Both words describe the movement of
something from one location to another.
Bring describes
the movement of something toward a specified location. According to this
convention, you can bring food to a party, but not take food to a party. If
Maria is having a potluck, her guests might ask her: Is there anything we can
bring? or Can I bring a friend? Maria might tell her guests: Bring something to
drink, and of course you can bring a friend. In this scenario, you are moving
something (food or a friend) toward Maria’s house.
Take, on the
other hand, generally describes the movement of something away from a location.
Maria might say: I have to take the garbage out tonight. Or she might ask her
guests: Do you want to take any leftovers home? In these example, the focus is
on the fact that Maria or her guests are removing something (the leftovers or
the garbage) from her house.
As with numerous
usage conventions, formal English diverges from informal English. For many
native speakers, bring and take are often interchangeable in colloquial speech
and writing. Is the bring vs. take distinction discussed above something you
notice or care about?
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