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>..because I *still don't get your point.

okay. I usually remain mute on these thorny issues, mostly because the point is so often moot, but.

As I understand this one, Faldage is saying that when I drove my car to be serviced this morning (as, it happens, I did), whether I should have said 'bring' or 'take' when I duly informed my spouse depended on whether I (1) intended to wait in the customer lounge [not longue] so that I wouldn't have to come back, or (2) arranged for other transportation and left my car there for the interim. To this I say, again borrowing from CK's lexicon (he's not here to notice anyway), "Codswallop!"

I think there's some rational thought behind my saying this: there's no way my spouse would (or should) know my intent merely from my choice of 'bring' or 'take'. If I had wanted her to think I might need a ride, I better damn well have mentioned that I didn't want to wait for them to finish with my car.


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don't bring it on if you can't take it.



formerly known as etaoin...
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sjm Offline
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>because I *still don't get your point.


Neither do I. My post dealt exclusively with one issue - does it come back or not? Anything else is absolutely irrelevant to the point of my post, and yet both of Faldage's responses focus, solely, it seems to me, on the "anything else". A simple yes or no answer was all that was needed to address the issue I raised, but I didn't get one.


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whether I should have said 'bring' or 'take' when I duly informed my spouse depended on whether I (1) intended to wait in the customer lounge [not longue] so that I wouldn't have to come back, or (2) arranged for other transportation and left my car there for the interim.

Not necessarily (to my mind). The usage, appears to depend on, WHO one is talking with.

Three people: Ann, Bob (Ann's husband) and Jo (mechanic).
Ann - Bob: I am takingthe car to the mechanic.
Ann - Jo: I am bringing the car in.
(If Bob decides to meet Ann at the mechanic's place and give her a ride back home..)
Ann - Bob: I shall bring the car in to Jo's at five and meet you there.

As I understand, whilst using bring, there must be a one on one communication between people, one of whom at the very least (either speaker or addressee), is at the location that bring is moving 'towards'. Whether we choose to use bring, or, take, is fluid, dependant on the speaker/ addressee perspective.

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maahey, I don't think I disagree with any of that, but I don't think it addresses the point that sjm was trying to make with Faldage either. I know that I'm going to butt back out now.


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sjm Offline
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Don't worry about, tsuwm. I 've given up.


#105992 06/21/03 09:36 PM
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I 've given up

So have I.


#105993 06/22/03 10:49 AM
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Well, if everyone's hopping on wow's bus, i'l pack me bags too. Good fun, though!


#105994 06/22/03 03:56 PM
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what do I need to bring on the bus? should I take a number?



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Leaving aside the various corollary meanings of both take and bring, if you look at the words in their original senses it seems quite straight forward.

Bring has a sense of immediacy and target-orientation by the speaker "I'll bring some booze." is something you would say to the person whose place you are intending to invade. "I'll take some booze." implies that the action is not going to be immediate (although, of course, it can be), and that you are not talking to someone at the target location. I might say to meine Frau: "I'm going to Jim's place and I'm taking some booze.", but I would never say to her "I'm going to Jim's place and I'm bringing some booze." But I would say to Jim "I am coming to your place and I'm bringing some booze." Note also that the verb in the main clause changed as well, "come/go".

It's one of those quirky things which allows us to easily distinguish between native speakers of English and people who learned it as a second language. Oh, and some Americans who don't know the difference.


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