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You bring something toward the initial point, you take something away from it. That should be easy enough. But it isn't.
Do you bring your car to the shop, or do you take it? I take it. But up here in Yankeeland, I hear "bring" much more often than "take." Any takers?
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Do you bring your lunch to work or do you take it to work?
And if you take the bus, then what?
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I can't explain it, but I am getting a sense of tenses with the usage of these words. Bring has a ring of the 'future' in it whilst take has a feel of the 'past'. Take also might be used in the narrative sense; as in, if i am reciting the day's routine to a friend, I'd say I take my lunch with me. I'd still use 'along' after take, I think. Have I made any sense or sparked a thought?
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sparked a thought
Now that you mention it, I get a stronger feeling of destination with bring than I do origin with take. That is, take seems to be more concentrated on the journey.
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To take something has idea of grasping, seizing.
Bring has idea of carrying. I used to take my car and bring it to the garage.
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Pretty nice distinction, Faldage. It does seem to be so, doesn't it? Now, I am thinking, that there is a sense of active/passive here. Bring seems more active and take, passive. Too much cogitation is a bad thing, eh?  Like someone said, "Given time, grass will turn into milk". Or something, to the effect (scratching head-e )
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nice distinction
In all senses of the word. Yet what Dr Bill says is equally sooth. There is the sense of acquisition in take that is missing in bring.
Perhaps we should examine cses where one will work and the other won't.
I'll take what I want.
Bring me the book.
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Well, yes, there is a sense of acquisition with take, but, not, (I think) in the usage, where the confusion with bring is. - Can I take you to the movies? - Can I bring you some aspirin? - Take two aspirins and call me in the morning. - Bring your old records to your next appointment. What's the protocol for editing? Must all idiocies be admitted to? 
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enthusiast
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If I am invited to dinner at your home I might take you a bottle of wine. You might be happy that I brought it. So far, so good. But then we use take in various idiomatic ways that muddy the distinction: take a walk, take a pill, take a breath, etc. I can't, at the moment, think of any bring idioms. To bring something up for a vote isn't really idiomatic, is it?
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I started out asuming that there *must be a difference. The more I think about it, the more my prejudice seems to fade. Take and bring can be used interchangeably, in the senses mentioned above - carry, convey, transport. To my mind, 'along', however, still seems a necessary add-on to 'take' in this context.....
take along = bring
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>If I am invited to dinner at your home I might take you a bottle of wine.
but, "Would you like me to bring a bottle of wine when I come to dinner?"
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i'd use along with bring.. "come visit, and bring along
(any of the following)
that hunky boyfriend of yours."
the kids, my house is childproof"
those relatives of yours that are visiting."
or any other number of phrases..
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Re your example, ASp, I would say, "I have to take my car in to get it fixed." But, when making the appointment, I would ask, "When can I bring it in". This usage is pretty standard here. This post also brings nothing new to the discussion, and simply takes up space.
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"...I can't, at the moment, think of any bring idioms. "
We bring people to tears...and to their knees.
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There is a difference but of most common use rather than only use. The sense I get is that bring is more about destination while take puts the emphasis on the object being moved. OTOH a moment ago I was going to agree with maahey that the difference is in tense. The more I look the more tenuous the distinction gets but they feel different in emphasis rather than actual definition
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Just for completeness, a word not often heard these days is
"fetch" = go take it and bring it to me.
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In reply to:
I can't, at the moment, think of any "bring" idioms.
One of my friends from New Englad has a use for bring that I find kind of funny. He'll say "Bring it!" as a joke challenge, presumably short for "Bring it on!"
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I use fetch; I like it.
I don't mind bring and take being interchangeable, as long as people don't say brung instead of took!!
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Officially Correct English, like the Tooth Fairy and Civic Virtue, is a product of grade school mythology
Love it.
When you go to the meeting next Friday, please bring your department's current budget report.
But if it had been When you come to the meeting next Friday… spoken by the same person at the same place and time, the sentence would have been correct with bring.
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re:I don't mind bring and take being interchangeable, as long as people don't say brung instead of took!!
I agree, brung is wrong.. but how about brang?
it once was correct, and then fell out of favor (as all irregular verbs tend to do over time) but its now making a comeback..
we went to the beach, and had a great time, Helen brang an insulated pitcher of margarita's, so we had grown up lemon ade!
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But if it had been When you come to the meeting next Friday… spoken by the same person at the same place and time, the sentence would have been correct with bring
Quite so, Faldage. ^5
I don't like brang much, oftroy; (to my ears) it has a harsh intonation for the context; maybe I am just too used to brought.
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Preliminary investigations suggest that bring, brang, brung may be historically correct.
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Then German interfered:
bringe, brachte, gebracht
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Turns out there were two verbs: the weak brengan, brohte, broht and the strong bringan, brangon, brungon. Apparently the strong bringan generally replaced the weak brengan. The disappearance of the n in the preterite and the past participle and the change from e to o in the weak brengan are due to sound changes that we need not go into here.
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I just can't come at brang or brung, possibly because this was drummed into me as a kid and I've tried to do the same with others I meet!
and we won't go into get, got, have gotten...
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I don't think there's anything wrong with this sentence from the getitwrite site:
2. Since Mary has just moved to town, I will bring her with me to the luncheon on Sunday.
If I'm talking to Angela and we're both going to be at the luncheon on Sunday, why not say "I'll bring Mary with me"?
Bingley
Bingley
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2. Since Mary has just moved to town, I will bring her with me to the luncheon on Sunday.
If I'm talking to Angela and we're both going to be at the luncheon on Sunday, why not say "I'll bring Mary with me"?
Seems kosher enough, Bingley. Remember the deixis rule the other link talked about?
With or without Angela, your being at the luncheon satisfies the rule; bring, entailing movement towards you.
If, however, both of you are going to the same luncheon, then the rule is doubly satisfied, it could be, bring 'towards' you or bring 'towards' Angela.
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2. Since Mary has just moved to town, I will bring her with me to the luncheon on Sunday.
bring, entailing movement towards you
Exactly. This is in that fuzzy area where it depends on the point of view. In this particular case, the point of view is either irrelevant or has been established outside of the quoted context. So the "right" answer is "I don't know which is correct" or "it doesn't matter which you use."
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Are we, perchance, taking this matter too far?
Shall we bring it to a close?
;-)galumping off into the sunset and I'll tote my lunch with me!)
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Wow, you take the bus and we'll continue the discussion. What this all boils down to, I guess, is point of view. Maybe, if Geoff Nunberg ever decides a date for the next AWAD chat, we could throw this one at him?
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bring, entailing movement towards youExactly. This is in that fuzzy area where it depends on the point of view. Faldage, i will begin by agreeing with your comment on what the 'right' answer should be. I got carried away with sharing my a-ha! experience with Bingley, when he probably just needed the confirmation that you provided. I am assuming (?rightly) that the question here is the one in the getitwrite site!? But the point of view is not in the 'towards'(?if this indeed is what you are saying; think i am having a bad post reading day). The movement association with bring, is, towards and with take, is, from. The point of view that *could vary is whether, the comment is being made from the perspective of the speaker or the addressee. The U Mich site had some Latin phrase for this, I can't remember.. I'll betcha wow missed her bus
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Shall we bring it to a close?
No, I find it much too thrilling.
One aspect has not been brought up so far, imho: If I bring something to a place, the intention is usually to give it to, or at least share it with, others, while if I just take it with me, I normally also take it back home sooner or later.
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> If I bring something to a place, the intention is usually to give it to, or at least share it with, others, while if I just take it with me, I normally also take it back home sooner or later. Except that the above does not hold true for the ASp's first example - if I tell my mechanic I'm bringing the car in for servicing, I damn sure want to be taking it home again.
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bringing the car in for servicing
Yeahbut®, you'd hope that the mechanic *did something to it before you take it back home. And if you're *real lucky, the mechanic did something that improved its performance.
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before you take it back home..
I was struggling with the temptation to add a similar remark: You abandon the car to the mechanic at least for a time.
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In reply to:
Yeahbut®, you'd hope that the mechanic *did something to it before you take it back home. And if you're *real lucky, the mechanic did something that improved its performance.
OK, spell this out nice and slowly for me please. My response to wsieber focussed on the idea that "bring" is often used to describe a situation where the thing brought is left behind, while "take" is used for situations where the thing taken is not left behind. I did not disagree, but said that, as I saw it, a case could be made for saying that the difference did not hold true for the situation I described.
Here is where I need it explained monosyllabically for me: What does the fact that the car is worked on have to do with it? I was simply, and solely, addressing the issue of whether or not the item taken somewhere was taken back again. The issue of what happened to that item is, as I see it, completely outside the parameters of my post. I look forward to being enlightened as to what I actually meant in my post.
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"bring" is often used to describe a situation where the thing brought is left behind
You bring the car in and leave it there while the guy who will fix it does so and then when he is done you take it home.
There, words of one syllable. I had to change behind to there. I hope that didn't confuse you.
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What does the fact that the car is worked on have to do with it? I was simply, and solely, addressing the issue of whether or not the item taken somewhere was taken back again. The issue of what happened to that item is, as I see it, completely outside the parameters of my post. sjm, indeed. Maybe you better use half-syllable words for me, Faldage, because I *still don't get your point. 
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You bring the car in and leave it...
I would say the opposite. I would take the car in and leave it but bring my umbrella and (hopefully) bring it home with me.
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