LEND or BORROW? | British English Grammar

- Hello and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I'm trying again with my new microphone,

hopefully it works, we'll see.

Today, we're going to be talking about two verbs,

that often confuse my students

and the verbs are to lend and to borrow.

Now, these verbs are so confusing,

because they mean roughly the same thing.

The only difference is the direction.

Now, I've got some secret tricks, that I can give you today,

that will make sure that you use these verbs correctly

100% of the time.

I've got some good methods of remembering which is which

and we're going to put them into practise today as well.

So firstly, what do they mean?

Well, to lend means to give something to somebody

for a limited amount of time,

so you expect to receive it back.

To borrow, on the other hand, means to receive something

for a limited amount of time

and they expect you to give it back.

So to lend means to give

and to borrow means to receive,

both for a limited amount of time.

The verb, to borrow, is regular,

the infinitive, to borrow,

the past simple, borrowed

and the past participle, borrowed again.

Lend on the other hand is irregular,

the infinitive, lend,

the past simple, lent

and the past participle, lent.

Now, I always tell my students that in order to remember it,

you need to think of the syllables,

lend, one syllable, give, one syllable,

borrow, two syllables, receive, two syllables,

so we know that lend, give, borrow, receive,

easy as that.

So let's put this into practise then.

I'm going to use my lovely cousins, John and Katie,

John and Katie, I hope you don't mind,

so John needs 10 pounds

and Katie has 10 pounds,

so John could say, "Katie, can you lend me 10 pounds?"

He could also say, "Katie, can I borrow 10 pounds?"

but he could not say,

"Katie, can you borrow me 10 pounds?"

and that's a mistake, that I often hear.

Now, Katie has got the 10 pounds

and she would like to give it to John

for that limited amount of time, so she could say,

"Yes John, I can lend you 10 pounds,"

she could also say, "Yes John, you can borrow 10 pounds,"

but she can't say, "Yes John, I can borrow you 10 pounds,"

so just remember that.

So make sure you understand the direction in this situation.

John has borrowed 10 pounds from Katie,

same situation, different direction.

Katie has lent 10 pounds to John,

so John has borrowed from Katie,

he's received the 10 pounds

and Katie has lent 10 pounds to John,

she's given him 10 pounds.

So, hopefully that is a little bit clearer.

Now I would like to test you, so we're going to have a quiz.

I'm going to give you five seconds to guess the answer

and then the answer will appear.

OK, so let's look at number one,

Could you mm me your Ferrari?

Could you mm me your Ferrari?

Which one will it be?

OK, the answer is lend,

could you lend me your Ferrari

and we know that it's lend, because we've got me,

I could say, could you give me your Ferrari,

I couldn't say, could you receive me your Ferrari.

So if you're in doubt, try it with give or receive

and that should tell you which one it will be.

OK, number two.

No way! Last time you mm my Ferrari, you crashed it!

No way! Last time you mm my Ferrari, you crashed it!

Which will it be?

OK, the answer is borrowed.

Make sure you think of the verb in its correct form.

No way! Last time you borrowed my Ferrari, you crashed it!

No way! Last time you borrowed my Ferrari, you crashed it!

So, number three.

I mm this t-shirt from Felicity.

I mm this t-shirt from Felicity.

Which one is it?

It's borrowed.

The reason it's borrowed is because we've got from,

I borrow from, I lend to.

OK, number four.

Did you mm him your PS4?

Did you mm him your PS4?

Which one is it?

It's lend, did you lend him your PS4?

Did you lend him your PS4?

We've got him, so we know it's lend.

OK, number five.

You shouldn't mm money.

You shouldn't mm money.

Which one is it, this one's difficult.

OK, this one was a trick one,

it can be both borrow or lend.

You shouldn't lend money, you shouldn't borrow money.

That's not my opinion, by the way.

Alright guys, that's it for today's lesson.

You should now understand how to use

lend and borrow correctly.

Just a quick reminder for you,

I now do a free, live pronunciation lesson

every Sunday at 4:30 London GMT time

and this is on my Facebook page,

which is called English with Lucy,

so the lesson lasts one hour and throughout that hour,

you can write your pronunciation queries,

i.e. words that you don't know how to pronounce

and I will pronounce them for you

and it's great fun, we did it last week as well

and loads of you tuned in

and I'm starting to recognise more and more names

and it's really nice to chat with you,

so make sure you tune in for that.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media,

which is right here in front of my face (laughs)

and I'll see you very, very soon for another lesson.

Now, Katie could reply firstly with, "No way!" (laughs)

Now, I've got some tricks, that I'm going to tell you today,

that will...