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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why do people get bought and brought mixed up?

230 replies

Starllight · 30/01/2023 07:41

A Monday morning irk of mine… Surely people know the difference?

Bought - past tense of buy

Brought - past tense of bring

As a side note, where I now live in Scotland I have never come across anyone get this mixed up. Perhaps that’s why it irks me when I see it?!

YABU - They’re both very similar and easy to get them mixed up
YANBU - It looks/sounds completely ridiculous when people use ‘brought’ instead of bought

OP posts:
KillingLoneliness · 30/01/2023 08:28

Aloud/Allowed 😩

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:29

SinnerBoy · 30/01/2023 08:24

Catnary · Today 08:10

Could be either.

It's really not:

Bring it here.
Take it there.

No. I’m afraid you are not right, and your daughter’s teacher is not wrong.

You bring something when you are going from A to B anyway and you do so with the item in your hand, bag or pocket.

“I will bring the book back tomorrow”

“Don’t forget to bring your socks to soft play”

You take something when the journey is dictated by where you want the object to go, rather than whether you were going anyway:

“I’m just taking some food over to Granny”.

“Take the car to the garage”

”Take with” means the same as “bring” - “we’re late, you’ll need to take your breakfast with you”.

Treacletreacle · 30/01/2023 08:29

Ive got then wrong before and had a smug friend point it out to me with past examples of when I have said it wrong. Has it made me remember to use the correct word? No it makes me have a mild panic when in conversation with her. Surely much better things to get bothered by in life..

SocksAndTheCity · 30/01/2023 08:29

I can't vote because both of the options are true.

FuzzyPuffling · 30/01/2023 08:30

Simonjt · 30/01/2023 07:57

I learned English in nottinghamshire, bought and brought were pronounced exactly the same.

I was born and brought up in Nottingham and in my experience this is just not true.

BitOutOfPractice · 30/01/2023 08:30

Yes I totally agree, brought and took would be used completely differently depending on the time lapse and the place I was when I said it.

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:31

kingtamponthefurred · 30/01/2023 08:24

Some people don't read books and have never seen the word written correctly, and also don't think about what they are saying.

Words are written in a lot of places other than books!

Sarahcoggles · 30/01/2023 08:31

Simonjt · 30/01/2023 07:57

I learned English in nottinghamshire, bought and brought were pronounced exactly the same.

So did the drop the R in brought, or add an R to bought? I can't see how they can be pronounced in the same way otherwise!

PizzaPastaWine · 30/01/2023 08:31

This would be my DS with dyslexia. The grammar police type used to cause him anxiety - now he realises he has bigger fish to fry.

Original poster
Starllight · 30/01/2023 08:32

BitOutOfPractice · 30/01/2023 08:28

@Catnary it is perfectly possible to exchange the two words though and still have a correct sentence.

I bought an apple.
i brought an apple.

Of course they have completely different meanings. I know that, you know that, the op knows that. But it doesn’t take the brains of Einstein to work out why some people might confuse them does it?

I hate these disingenuous questions, like another poster said, which are asked to prove how clever the op is. It’s really not cool.

I’m not sure where you get that I’m trying to prove how clever I am. I’m sure most on this thread are more educated than I am. I could understand if I was digging people up for their/they’re/there which sound identical… but I’m not.

I asked as I was genuinely curious as I have never (that I can recall) seen or heard it in my 20 years in Scotland. Perhaps where you’re from it’s very easy to get it mixed up. Try saying both with a Scottish accent.

OP posts:
Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:33

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:29

No. I’m afraid you are not right, and your daughter’s teacher is not wrong.

You bring something when you are going from A to B anyway and you do so with the item in your hand, bag or pocket.

“I will bring the book back tomorrow”

“Don’t forget to bring your socks to soft play”

You take something when the journey is dictated by where you want the object to go, rather than whether you were going anyway:

“I’m just taking some food over to Granny”.

“Take the car to the garage”

”Take with” means the same as “bring” - “we’re late, you’ll need to take your breakfast with you”.

Show quote history

Sorry, my first example “I will bring the book back tomorrow” should have had extra information, something like “I will bring the book back when I come to work tomorrow”.

SinnerBoy · 30/01/2023 08:37

Plbrookes · Today 08:27

So ... what would you say if you were in work when you were describing your actions? 'Brought' or 'took'?

At the work place:

"Hi Sarah, I've brought a coffee with me."

Telling my wife later, "I bought a coffee on the way and took it into work."

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:37

FuzzyPuffling · 30/01/2023 08:30

I was born and brought up in Nottingham and in my experience this is just not true.

Show quote history

Or born and and bought up? Wink

Plbrookes · 30/01/2023 08:39

SinnerBoy · 30/01/2023 08:37

Plbrookes · Today 08:27

So ... what would you say if you were in work when you were describing your actions? 'Brought' or 'took'?

At the work place:

"Hi Sarah, I've brought a coffee with me."

Telling my wife later, "I bought a coffee on the way and took it into work."

So, it could be either then.

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:42

SinnerBoy · 30/01/2023 08:22

Starllight · Today 08:09

That’s a good point - I would say ‘took’ instead of ‘brought’ in most scenarios I can think of

It irks me a bit, my daughter will say, "I need to bring Xyz to school tomorrow," as the teacher has told her to bring it.

Looking at this again, I realise that you were not saying that the teacher was wrong, just that your daughter (in your view) incorrectly repeated “bring” instead of converting it to “take”.

I still disagree that your daughter is incorrect though, as she was going to school anyway.

Aprilx · 30/01/2023 08:48

Sandysandwich · 30/01/2023 07:45

They sound very similar and they mean similar things.
I could say I bought an apple or I brought an apple, either way I have an apple.
Pretty easy for someine to mix them up

They sound quite similar but they do not mean anything remotely similar. Confused

I can’t vote on the thread though because I have never come across anybody mixing up these words.

BridieConvert · 30/01/2023 08:50

I'm Scottish and I agree it's not something you really see/hear get mixed up here often! But I see it lots on social media.. maybe a regional thing where they sound more similar?

Catnary · 30/01/2023 08:51

BitOutOfPractice · 30/01/2023 08:28

@Catnary it is perfectly possible to exchange the two words though and still have a correct sentence.

I bought an apple.
i brought an apple.

Of course they have completely different meanings. I know that, you know that, the op knows that. But it doesn’t take the brains of Einstein to work out why some people might confuse them does it?

I hate these disingenuous questions, like another poster said, which are asked to prove how clever the op is. It’s really not cool.

I don’t think that’s fair on OP. She did say quite clearly that she has never heard them mixed up in Scotland so she was asking people in England to tell her why English people get them confused, as they sound so different to us. So at worst she was simply demonstrating that she is a bit insular, not saying that she thinks English people are less clever than she is. But it was just a chatty question.

Second, while I agree that “I brought an apple” and “I bought an apple” are both valid sentences, you accept that they mean completely different things, so surely it’s not that common for a speaker/writer to completely forget what they were trying to say?

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 30/01/2023 08:53

I've never come across anyone mixing up these words (England)

FangsForTheMemory · 30/01/2023 08:56

I remember when my mother corrected me for mixing these up. I was three.

eurochick · 30/01/2023 08:59

I didn't realise they were two different words until I was doing A level English lit. I was at primary school in the 80s when we were not taught grammar. We were supposed to learn it by osmosis or something. It drove my language teachers in secondary crazy as loads of people in the class didn't have a clear understanding of nouns, verbs, etc. in the accent where I grew up the "r" isn't clearly pronounced so the difference wasn't obvious in speech.

I was a straight A student at a good school and a keen reader but it was a missing piece of SPAG for me only caught by chance.

MajorCarolDanvers · 30/01/2023 09:00

It's a regionalism but one I don't like.

Snowybeach · 30/01/2023 09:00

It’s a regional dialect thing. No one says it in my area.

I have taught English in three different cities in the U.K. and ‘brought’ is not used instead of ‘bought’ in any of those places either!

There are definitely other quirks of dialect in all those areas though.

MoroccanRoseHChurch · 30/01/2023 09:00

There were kids (fine. Not kids. Late teens) being interviewed on the radio the other day who couldn’t use genuinely/generally correctly… they’re not even the same thing!!

Catnary · 30/01/2023 09:04

MoroccanRoseHChurch · 30/01/2023 09:00

There were kids (fine. Not kids. Late teens) being interviewed on the radio the other day who couldn’t use genuinely/generally correctly… they’re not even the same thing!!

Did they also say “obviously” a million times, mostly in relation to things that were not remotely obvious?