Are We Losing the Verb 'to take'?

[HopeSpringsInfernal]

Just that really.
I've rarely, if ever, seen it used on here. It seems to have been replaced with bring/brought e.g. I've seen 'bring my child to school' or any other venue, and today 'bring your child into the ladies' changing room'.

These are just two examples where I'd use take. I'm not sure this usage is incorrect, but it sounds strange to me and I think it's a shame that 'to take' seems to be gradually disappearing.

I would take my child to school.

I would either take my child into the changing room (for them to get changed) or bring my child into the changing room with me (to watch them whilst I got changed).

I'm pretty sure the standard where I live (Surrey) would be the same.

I haven't really noticed the verb to take disappearing. Might be regional?

I would use take & bring in exactly the same way. I'm in the north east, by the way.

I just can't recall seeing take used on MN. Where you & I would use take, bring/brought seems to be the default. It could of course be a regional thing, or maybe I'm frequenting the wrong threads 😁

It’s Irish. Irish people say ‘bring my daughter to school’

Ahh - so there is a regional difference. Thank you 😊

To me 'take" means transporting a thing to another place while 'bring' suggests you are based in that place but I can't make it make sense with examples. It's just in my mind.

Maybe this: I will take him to the cinema and then bring him home.

Yesterday I took some items to a charity shop and I brought back some shopping, both in the same journey.
Now, do I generally feel that 'take' starts at home and goes out, and 'brought' starts out there and comes home? No, not when I say, "Pass it over here, I'll take it from you." Mmmmm, muse over lunch.

Such an interesting discussion!

I think of take as going away from (ie outward/bound) and bring as come towards (or inwards/bound).

Ie I'll some food for the picnic and bring back any left overs

Surely "bring" is with you and take is just taking something somewhere.

So using the PPs example, you take something to the charity shop (and leave it there) and bring shopping home (with you).

I pretty sure I wouldn't use bring/brought in any sentence where you couldn't add in a "with me/you/them etc", even if that part is unsaid.

So I wouldn't bring a child to school, but I would bring the baby (with me) whilst I took the eldest to school.

I think it might be one of those words that as a native speaker you would instinctively know how to use, but no one can quite explain what the exact rules are!

I've seen it increasingly used too OP. I think it's another social media corruption of the language. They can't all be Irish.

@CaptainMyCaptain
@Phunkychicken
@mrsm43s
@upinaballoon

I agree

This is how I would use them. However, amusingly, it has caused confusion on WhatsApp groups when trying to arrange lifts there and back. Not helped by the fact there was a mixture of northerners and southerners responding. I now have to be very specific 'I will take them down to the pool if you can bring them hone afterwards'.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this.
It would be a shame if take fell out of use, but it seems that it's still very much alive & kicking, albeit not on many threads on MN

Complete de-rail. Don't you just love lots of the usernames? Everywhere.

@HopeSpringsInfernal
The quote below is from the Wikipedia article on Hiberno-English, which is the English spoken on the island of Ireland.

“Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of British English because it follows the Irish grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; a person determines Irish usage. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". In Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else – and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from).”

In reality, as an Irish person, I find I sometimes use bring and take the Irish way and at other times the British English way.

I wouldn’t ever say ‘bring’ my child, I would say ‘take my child. I think I would use ‘bring’ when referring to an object, ie ‘bring my drink bottle with me’.

Now that I think about it, I would use the word ‘bring’ if the object was going to stay with me. In contrast, I would say ‘take’ if I am delivering the object (or child!) but not staying with it, or if it is being removed from someone or a place, ie ‘take him home’. I don’t know if that is technically correct, but it is how I use the words. Non native British person here- I don’t know if that makes a difference!

Thanks for this - it's really interesting to understand why the usage is different for people from Ireland 😊

That depends on whether you're also going to the cinema. You could take him home if you're also there. Otherwise you'll have to bring him home.

Is there a nice song in 'Les Mis' called 'Bring him home'?

Colleague at work: "Do you take your child to school?"

Teacher at parents' evening: "Do you bring your child to school?"

So I would say the use of either 'take' or 'bring' is relative to your location.