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| "Bring me the ball, Willie." |
Ever have a problem with bring and take? I see the two words misused more often than I would expect, but I have to stop and think about which one is correct sometimes too. It's all about the place of speaking.
When the verb to bring
indicates physical movement, it means to
move it in the direction of the speaker, to bring something to or toward
oneself. It denotes movement toward the place of speaking or the point from
which the action is regarded. If Max is doing the telling, he could see that
Dave brings a cup with him (toward Max). "Bring
the cup to me," Max said.
If no movement is implied, bring may be used to mean produce;
for example, The new regulations could
bring improvements to low-income housing.
Take,
the opposite of bring, indicates
movement away from the place of speaking. "Take this cup to Mary," Max said. He took the cards to the party.
The action in both examples is moving away from the place of speaking, going
toward another place.
