Bring, Take, and the Slow Death of Spatial Awareness
Is poor education to blame for the fact that so many native English speakers can’t use bring and take correctly? Or have we collectively lost the ability to imagine where we are standing at any given moment?
Last week I read a piece in the Irish Independent in which a prominent journalist wrote something along the lines of: “an injured person was brought to the hospital.”
Really? Brought?
Was the journalist personally accompanying the ambulance? Were they clinging to the back bumper with a notebook and a sense of duty? Of course not. They were at their desk, probably eating a sandwich.
The correct verb is taken. As in: “the injured person was taken to the hospital, while the reporter remained safely at their keyboard.”
Where was the sub‑editor? Possibly also at lunch, – perhaps nibbling on the other half of that sandwich.
But, bring and take aren’t decorative. They contain actual information about location – a concept that, judging by modern usage, is now considered optional – like ironing, or basic geography.
Take these two sentences:
- “I will bring my laptop from home to the office.”
Translation: I am currently at the office, and I am promising to arrive tomorrow with my laptop and, presumably, a sense of purpose.
- “I will take my laptop from home to the office.”
Translation: I am not at the office. I might be at home. I might be in a café. I might be in a field. But I am definitely not at the office.
Now consider:
“I’m going to bring my colleague to the airport” versus
“I’m going to take my colleague to the airport.”
If you say bring, you are speaking from the airport. Perhaps you live there now. Perhaps you’ve set up a small tent beside Departures? Perhaps I need to contact Focus Ireland on your behalf?
If you say take, you are somewhere else – anywhere else – but not at the airport.
This is not advanced linguistics. This is not quantum mechanics. This is kindergarten‑level spatial reasoning. And yet, somehow, it’s evaporating.
Maybe it’s laziness. Maybe it’s the collapse of editorial standards. Maybe we’ve all become so dependent on GPS that we no longer know where we are unless a mobile phone tells us.
But the distinction matters. Language loses something when we stop caring about perspective. And frankly, if we can’t manage bring and take, I fear for the future of lend and borrow.
“Borrow me your blue pencil, will you – the chief already has a lend of mine.”