Bring or Take ?

[Joe The Tim]

When should you use bring or take? i.e. bring it upstairs or take it upstairs.

[ravenhair]

This is going to be a slight over-simplification, but it's basically a directional thing according to the perspective of the speaker and the person addressed by the speaker. If you are upstairs and the other person is downstairs, you would say bring it upstairs, as bring is used to denote something coming towards the speaker. Take it upstairs would imply that both you and the other person are downstairs, as take is used to denote movement away from the speaker. There are other, more subtle, nuances which can change things a little but I'd be here all day . . . that's basically the info you're after.

[Joe The Tim]

Good answer ravenhair, thanks, but I think I'll need something more substantial to convince my wife (and my in-laws !!) to use these 2 words in the correct context.

[ravenhair]

Well . . . what else can I tell you that would help you in this domestic debate?

[Joe The Tim]

ravenhair, your simplified explanation worked on my wife, . . . . . . . now for the in-laws !! Thank you.

[Gef]

I just can't belive this - did no one else go to school!

[FredPuli]

As ravenhair says it is a question of 'perspective. Perhaps your in-laws might compare " Bring it with you " and "Take it with you". In the first the speaker obviously expects 'it' to accompany the bringer and to go to where the speaker is or expects to be. In the second the speaker is asking for it to accompany the bringer to some place where the speaker is not and not then intending to be.(Anyone there who is to receive it may ask "Have you brought it?" They will not ask " Have you taken it?", which would not make sense from them.)

[rashah]

Just so you know, in the US they don't have this distinction. They seem to use bring rather than take in all circumstances.