_____
Bring or Take? While watching old reruns of Two And A Half Men I noticed that the character named Alan, seated at the breakfast table in their home, said,"I have to bring Jake to school" instead of, as I learned in school -- "I have to take Jake to school." as I would phrase it. So, which is the correct form of that statement... bring or take?
The grammarphobia blog offers:
(1) If the merchandise or the person is moving toward you (that is, you're the destination), the appropriate verb is "bring." Example: "I have something for you to read, so bring your glasses."
(2) If the merchandise or the person is moving away from you (that is, you're the point of origin), the appropriate verb is "take." Example: "I've finished, so you can take my plate to the kitchen.”
Of course, grammarphobia has a LOT more to say on the subject.
While I am not a certified authority on the subject of English grammar, I still think my way is correct.
_____
At the Writer's Almanac Nov. 17, 2011 I read a curious fact:
In the early 1950s, Bennett Cerf of Random House sent author Shelby Foote a letter asking him to produce a short account of the Civil War in time for the war's centennial. Cerf wanted about 200,000 words; it wound up being almost eight times longer. The Civil War: A Narrative took 20 years to write and ended up spanning almost 3,000 pages in three volumes. It was published from 1958 to 1974; he wrote 500 to 600 words a day, longhand, using an old-fashioned dip pen.
In my opinion, that's amazing! 3,000 pages using an old-fashioned dip pen.
__________
We are what we pretend to be so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
--Kurt Vonnegut
No comments:
Post a Comment