'Owe', 'lend' and 'borrow' - Learners' Questions

Hi guys! Dan from BBC Learning English here with this week's Learner Question. Find out

what it is after this.

OK! This week's Learner Question comes from Omar from Somalia, who asks: How can I use

the word owe when I lend someone some money? Do I say I owe you $20 or do I say you owe

me $20? How do I use this word in both ways such as when I borrow money from someone or

also when I lend someone some money? Wow, Omar. That’s one heck of a question. Let’s

see if we can answer it for you, ok?

So, if you borrow something, you take it from somebody for a limited time. The preposition

is from. For example, I borrowed £5 from my brother. Or, many of his ideas are borrowed

from other sources.

Now for lend. Lend is give, you give something to someone for a short or limited period of

time, but they’re expected to return it! It has two objects. You lend something to

someone or you lend somebody something. For example, my brother lent £5 to me. That’s

verb, direct object and indirect object. Notice the preposition to - £5 to me. Or, my brother

lent me £5. That’s verb, indirect object and direct object. No preposition. Money is

lent by banks to people.

Now for owe. Owe is what must be returned. It results from the borrowing or lending.

It can also have two objects. So you owe somebody something or you owe something to somebody.

And there’s no difference. So, using our previous example, I borrowed

£5 from my brother so I owe my brother £5. Or, my brother lent me £5 so I owe £5 to

my brother. And you can change it if you want to. So, I borrowed £5 from my brother so

I owe £5 to my brother. Or, my brother lent me £5 so I owe my brother £5. And it’s

all the same! So, don’t stress.

I hope that answers your question Omar. Thank you very much for writing to us. If anybody

else out there has a question for Learners’ Questions, you can email us on: [email protected].

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bbclearningenglish.com. That’s it for this week’s Learners’ Questions. I’ll see

you next time. Bye!