What's the Difference? Lend vs Borrow | Remember vs Remind | Bring vs Take

Imagine taking a road trip and you turn your car onto a road with a

one-way sign.

You know that means that you and everyone else can only drive in one

direction. No one can drive in the opposite direction.

Some English verbs are just like that.

They describe a similar action, but from different perspectives.

It's almost like viewing the action through a different lens to

elaborate the direction of the action or the use of the verb depends

on who is performing it and who is receiving it. For example,

for simplicity, I like to call these types of verbs one-way verbs.

Pretty simple right now, although these verbs may be similar in meaning,

they are not interchangeable because perspective matters.

Let me give you this example. You can lend a book to your friend,

but you cannot lend a book to yourself.

You can borrow a book from your friend,

but you cannot borrow a book from yourself.

The choice between lend and borrow depends on perspective

and understanding.

This perspective is crucial in order to use these verbs correctly.

For example, have you ever heard someone say,

I learned her how to, I learned her how to drive,

or maybe she learned me, she learned me how to drive,

when in fact what we need to use is teach.

She taught me how to drive.

I taught her how to drive or what about this?

I borrowed her some money when in fact what we need to use is

to lend. I lent her some money.

These examples represent common mistakes when the perspective of the

action is misunderstood, the verbs learn and borrow.

Describe the action from the perspective of the person receiving,

receiving information or receiving an item.

Whereas the verbs teach and lend,

describe an action from the perspective of the person giving knowledge or giving

an item. When these perspectives are confused,

not only does it sound like a mistake in the sentence,

but it also can lead to miscommunication and that's why it's so

important to grasp this understanding of perspective or again,

as I like to call them one-way verbs. In fact,

you can think about understanding these verbs just like you might understand the

rules of the road and when you understand how to use these verbs

correctly, it helps you avoid collisions in your English conversations.

In this confident English lesson.

Today we're going to explore several examples of these one-way verbs,

including lend and borrow, bring and take,

remind and remember so that you can use them correctly in

conversations and avoid those common traps of miscommunication.

Now, before we go any further, if this is your first time here, welcome.

I'm Annemarie, an English confidence in fluency Coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

If you'd love to discover hundreds of confident English lessons just like this

one, I've got all of that and more over at my Speak Confident English website.

Let's start off right away with two of the most commonly confused verbs.

Lend and borrow.

These two verbs describe the same action of transferring

something temporarily from one person to another,

but from different perspectives.

Lend is from the person giving something to someone else for a

temporary period of time and borrow is from the perspective of someone

receiving an item temporarily.

I highlighted earlier there's a common mistake with a sentence such as I

borrowed her some money.

If you are the person giving money to her,

then what we need here is Lent. I lent her some money.

Here are a few more example sentences. May I borrow your pen please?

I need to sign this check. By using borrow,

I indicate that I will be the one to receive that pen.

Now let's change this up just a bit.

Could you lend me your pin?

I need to sign this check real quick. In this sentence,

I'm indicating that you are the one who will be giving something to me and

our third example, Rachel lent me her dress for the party.

I'm so glad I could borrow it here.

Rachel is the one giving me the dress and I am the one receiving

it. Before we move on to our next pair of verbs,

I've got one more example sentence,

but this time I want you to pause and think about which verb is the correct verb

to use. May I, a few coins to pay the parking meter.

I'll pay you back tomorrow. Think for a moment.

Will you be giving money or receiving money? If you thought borrow,

you're exactly right, may I borrow a few coins to pay the parking meter?

I'll pay you back tomorrow.

Our second pair of verbs on this list are give and take.

While lend and borrow focused on transferring something temporarily,

give and take focus on transferring possession,

but from opposite ends of the transaction.

The verb give is from the perspective of someone offering something to someone

else and of course take is from the perspective of someone

receiving something from someone else. For example,

our new neighbors greeted us and gave us a homemade pie by using

give. In this example,

I'm indicating that it's our neighbors who are offering that homemade

pie to us. Example number two,

I'll take a few samples to our customers so they can see the different color

options. Let's think about this one carefully.

If I'm going to meet with my customers in the end,

my plan is to give them these samples. However,

at the moment of saying this sentence to my colleague, for example,

I may be at the office where I have a variety of marketing materials

and I'm going to accept some of these from the office.

I'm going to receive them from the office.

I'm going to take them with me and then go to my customers and

I'll give those samples.

I'll offer them to my clients so they can look at them and see all of the

different options.

Here we can see how important having that clear perspective is.

Now let me give you one more example sentence and again this time I want you to

identify the correct verb please some more cake.

We bought way too much from the bakery. What do you think?

Are you the one offering or receiving? If you said take,

you're absolutely right.

I'm asking you to please accept or receive more

cake to take some more because we have way too much. Okay,

our third pair continues with this verb take,

but now we're going to compare it with bring and it changes the meaning and

focus a bit with bring and take.

Our focus is on the movement of something. However,

the direction of that movement depends on the speaker's.

Location bring is from the perspective of something moving

toward the speaker's location, whereas take is the opposite.

It indicates movement away from the speaker's location.

For example,

if I say our new neighbors greeted us and brought us a homemade

pie here I'm highlighting the movement of that homemade pie

from their home to my location.

Example number two,

if my brother doesn't take his car today,

I'll bring the cases of water to the picnic myself.

Let's break this sentence down because it is a bit complicated.

There are some underlying assumptions we have or a larger

picture that we need to think about in order to really understand the

difference between take and bring in this sentence. So first,

let's say that my brother and I both live at home.

We both have a car and both my brother and I plus

several family members and maybe some friends are going to have a picnic

somewhere later today and at this point in time it is

unclear as to whether my brother will take his car. Now remember,

I'm the speaker and I'm in a specific location at this time,

so if he takes his car, the picnic,

he is moving away from my current location. Now again,

it's unclear as to whether he will do this. If he does,

he can take all of the water with him. If he doesn't,

if he decides to ride his bike, well,

it would be pretty tough to carry a lot of cases of water on his bike,

so if he determines not to take his car,

then I will put all those cases in my car and bring them with me.

I'm moving toward my location at the picnic.

Once again with this particular sentence,

we can see how important it is to understand the perspective in order to

make the correct choice with these verbs bring and take.

Let's take a look at one more example.

Could you take the kids to soccer practice tomorrow with this particular

question?

It's understood that the speaker expects the listener to go from

the current location where I am as the speaker to the soccer

practice location with the kids. Now, again, as you may have guessed,

I do have a practice sentence for you.

I want you to choose whether to use the verb bring or take in this sentence

please the groceries inside.

Are those groceries going away from or coming

toward my location as the speaker?

Please bring the groceries inside. Okay,

we have just a few more examples before we get to what I think might be the two

verbs that I most often hear mistakes with,

remember and remind before we get there,

let's get to send and receive both of these verbs.

Describe the movement of an item or a message yet once again from

very different perspectives.

Send is focused on the perspective of someone transmitting something and

receive is from the perspective of someone getting something.

For example,

I'll send you an email with the details later today I'm using send

because I am the one that is going to transmit some information in that email.

Example number two,

she received a package from her friend in the mail here,

of course receive indicates that this particular person is the one who got

something in the mail and now it's your turn.

I want you to fill in the blanks of this sentence using send

or receive. I didn't your message.

Could you again, if you thought I didn't receive your message,

could you send it again? You're absolutely right.

Our next verb pair is teach and learn.

I highlighted at the beginning of this lesson that this is one of those verb

pairs where I often hear mistakes and those mistakes might come from

direct translation in your native language. In English,

we have to be so careful about making sure we understand the perspective to

get these verbs right. These two verbs, of course,

are focused on transferring knowledge with teach, of course,

coming from the perspective of the person who is imparting

or giving knowledge and learn from the perspective of the person

receiving or acquiring knowledge. For example,

my manager asked me to teach my new colleague how to use the photocopier

here. Of course,

I'm the one with that knowledge already and I'm going to impart it or share it

with someone else and now our second example for this pair,

it took several months,

but she taught me how to drive and I finally got my driver's license in the us

once again, we have someone with that information.

She perhaps my neighbor,

and it is my neighbor who is transferring that information to me.

She is imparting it to me.

So here's your quiz sentence once again.

There are two blanks and I want you to decide which verb to use in each.

Melissa watched YouTube videos and to draw beautiful flowers,

those videos, her how to control her pencil.

If you selected, learned and taught, you're right,

she learned how to draw and those videos taught her how to control her pencil.

Next on our list is O and pay.

Both of these verbs focus on financial obligation,

but there's just a bit of distinction between them.

O is from the perspective of someone who has existing debt and

pay is from the perspective of someone who does have some debt but

is settling that debt or in the process of lowering or

removing that debt. For example,

I owe the bank some money because of my student loan.

I'm the one who has that debt and that is what my focus is on the

fact that I have debt, I have a financial obligation to the bank.

Now,

if I say every month I pay the bank because of my student loan,

I am indicating that yes, I have debt,

but I'm in the process of lowering it or removing it.

I'm settling that debt. Here's a sentence that might make that a bit more clear.

He still owes me for the lunch I bought last week,

but I'm sure he'll pay me back soon. So in the first part of that sentence,

I'm indicating that he has some debt.

I bought lunch and he's in debt to me and I'm sure that he will settle

that debt that he will lower or remove that debt soon.

So here's your quiz sentence.

I need to by the end of the month or I will

late fees,

I need to pay my bills by the end of the month or I will owe,

I will be in debt with some late fees and now our final pair of

verbs, perhaps the two verbs where I hear the most mistakes,

remember and remind. As you know, both of these verbs are related to memory.

However, from differing perspectives,

a typical mistake that I hear with these two verbs is this,

can you remember me to call her?

What we really need in this example is can you remind me to call her?

The verb remember is used from the perspective of the person trying

to recall trying to find that information or that

detail in their own mind. For example, if I say,

I remember when it is me going back into my memories

and finding that information. Remind on the other hand,

is from the perspective of someone who is

prompting another person to recall that

information or detail. In other words,

one person is asking another person to go back into their

memories and find that important information or

asking someone to help them find that information in the future.

For example, I remember meeting her at the conference last year.

Here I am the one going back into my memories and finding

that information, that memory of meeting her last year. Now,

if I say, I know we've met before,

but can you remind me of where we met?

I am asking you to help me go back into my memory

and find that information. Here's another example.

She reminded me about the meeting tomorrow, but I couldn't remember the time.

So first with Remind,

she has prompted me to recall that information about our meeting

and even though I now remember that there's a meeting,

I can't go back into my memory to find the detail about the time,

so now it's your turn. Take a look at this sentence.

We've got two blanks to fill and I want you to choose the right verb between

Remember and Remind. She couldn't where she left her key,

so I had to her to check her purse.

She couldn't remember where she left her key,

so I had to remind her I had to prompt her to check her purse.

Now that you have this in-depth insight into these one-way verbs,

I want you to practice choose one or two pairs from this lesson.

Focus on the pairs of verbs that you typically struggle with and try creating

some of your own example sentences below.

You can always share your example sentences with me down in the

comments below so I can review them,

make sure that you've got them right and give you some feedback.

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