Brought and bought?

[nataliebat]

Probably been done to death but how do people not understand the difference between
"Bought and brought"
It drives me barmy!

Because they're ignorant idiots.

Bought: past participle of the verb 'to buy'
Brought: part participle of the verb 'to bring'

I think

A woman around 40s in boots on the phone
"I've just brought this lovely gift set from boots,Sandra will love it"

because they're idiots

They're idiots.

OR

English is not their first language.

I have enough problems trying to convince my Italian students not to pronounce "Bought" as "Borf"...

It's 'borrow' and 'lend' which drives me batty.

Not sure if it's a local thing or not but people asking 'can you borrow it me'?

ARGH!

That's not very nice, Biker and Eilaianne.

I think it's a sad indictment of the British education system because I think to know how well a system works you need to look at those at the bottom, not those at the top.

I don't think confusing bought and brought is one foreigners tend to make, at least no more than Brits. You can tell by the rest of the language in a post whether you're dealing with a native speaker or not.

I work with a lot of non-native English speakers (more of them than native Brits, when I think about it), I have never heard them make that mistake - it's always indicative of a poor educational background, in my experience. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I honestly can't recall an example.

An oddity on the borrow/lend axis from a childhood friend who went to live with his mum up in South Shields was that rather than asking for a borrow he'd say "Can I lend that from you". Not sure if that was just him or a local thing.

My pet hate is people saying 'generally' when they actually mean 'genuinely'.

Saying brought instead of bought is one thing, but purchasing someone a gift set from Boots is really unforgivable.

I actually sit next to an extremely well-educated woman (as in, multiple degrees, professional certifications coming out out of her ears) who's otherwise lovely but says pacifically instead of specifically.

It makes me want to stab her with a ballpoint pen every time she does it (which, now that I'm attuned to it as a bit of a trigger, is quite a lot).

I'm sure I have annoying habits too, but fuck me, this one is a new annoyance with an otherwise lovely co-worker.

"lend" and "borrow" are the same in some languages, not sure how they'd translate "neither a lender nor a borrower be".

"teach" and "learn" in some dialects have different usages, as in "that'll learn him"

I hate threads like these and despise people who post things like "they're idiots"

I used to be a total grammar pedant (in my head, not out loud btw, because I'm not a twat) but since a brain issue I have lost the ability to remember correct grammar and spellings (and words, and lots of other things, like what happened five minutes ago )

I've been on MN a long time and know we are sticklers for good SPaG so it's really hard to have to think "is it there or their" when it used to just be automatic. Things take me longer to type and it worries me. I have to look stuff up and I'm careful. People can't imagine it, I know I couldn't before this happened.

Then I see threads where posters genuinely think I am "ignorant" or "an idiot" and think, do I really want to share space with posters like that, if that's what they really think of me?

If you have an issue, why don't you fuck off elsewhere, or perhaps just be a bit kinder or even just shut the fuck up?!

I would like to believe most people reading this thread would think the "ignorant" and "idiot" posters are actually more twattish than someone who spells something wrong etc. Says more about you than it does me. Feel free to apologise for being a twat, btw.

And I'm well educated and spent ten minutes deciding whether it was "specially" or "especially" the other day. And to add insult to injury, I can't remember which one I decided on

And for all the people that will go "oh I didn't mean people like you, I mean lazy people or uneducated people who can't be bothered to learn" how do you tell the difference from reading our posts?

Perhaps you could just refrain from commenting like a dick, on the off chance you might make someone feel two inches tall? Or is your desire to sound superior more important to you?

Well at least my ranting killed the thread

I've literally never heard anyone say "brought" when they meant "bought" out loud. I've seen it written, though.

I live in an area with a non-rhotic accent. I bet that has something to do with it.

Live in Essex - this is rampant. Drives me barmy, I wouldn't comment on it ever because I don't know everyone's background but yes it's super annoying

The fun thing about "I brought this from Boots" is that it is also correct. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I have a well educated but Essex-accented cow-orker, and she does the "brought/bought" thing. She honestly can't hear the difference, so maybe local usage is like those languages where borrow/lend are the same word - although also she's a bit dyslexic.

I ain't bovvered - as long as reasonably communication occurs, all is good. English is pretty freely adaptable.

(Loose for lose always makes me grit my teeth though, I am a walking bag of contradictions! And don't you dare mention "literally" or I might have to scream and punch a wall)

Confusing these two is better than saying "brang". I've worked in a school and the number of kids who'd say "I brang in my kit" was appalling.

English might be "adaptable" but surely it has to make sense.
99% of the time you can't just pick and choose when to substitute words for others.

I’ve never heard or seen this

English might be "adaptable" but surely it has to make sense.
99% of the time you can't just pick and choose when to substitute words for others. And 90% of the time people don't. Just the times when you can still understand what they mean.

Took me ages to get used to "while" meaning "until". "I'll be out while 5.0"

I think it's a sad indictment of the British education system because I think to know how well a system works you need to look at those at the bottom, not those at the top.

Ah, so you're saying that the blame lies firmly with teachers, schools and the education system? Ok then.