BLOG SERIES “English Grammar Made Easy”
by Andrew Yiannakis, Ph.D., Research Professor, University of New Mexico
BLOG #15: When to use “BRING” and when to TAKE?
Often, many use “bring” and “take” interchangeably with little loss in meaning. In certain circumstances, however, it makes more sense to use one over the other. The distinction speaks to whether the action in question involves movement toward you, or movement away from you.
Two examples of correct usage:
“Take my car keys with you” (action away from you) or,
“Bring me my car keys” (action toward you)
It seems more logical to use the term “bring” when the action involves movement TOWARD you, as in “bring me the book”. When the implied action involves action AWAY from you, the verb “to take” makes more sense. For example, “I want you to take my car to the dealer” and not, “I want you to bring my car to the dealer”, because the action involves movement away from you. However, it is correct to say, “please bring me my car from the dealer”. This action involves movement toward you, hence “to bring” is the correct form.
In summary, if the action implies movement TOWARD you, then the correct form is “TO BRING”. If, on the other hand, the implied action involves movement AWAY from you (or your location), then the correct form is to “TAKE”.
If interested, the rule comes from Linguistics and is an example of “Deixis”, which speaks to positional contexts. Read enough? OK!
Andrew Yiannakis, Ph.D. 