A reader objected to this usage in Monday's paper: Stephen Colbert brings his Comedy Central show to Iraq. Indeed, because Colbert was in the United States to start, he must take his show to Iraq.
I've run across a couple of other instances of bring where I would use take.
Folks attending the John Hope Franklin celebration at Duke Chapel should park either in the Bryan Center parking garage or in lots along Duke University Road near Chapel Drive, where shuttles will bring them to campus. It seems to me that the shuttle start at the parking areas and take the people to campus.
And this:
Bring your kids and your dog to Dog Days of June at Fred G. Bond Metro Park, Field No. 2, 801 High House Rd., Cary, from 9 a.m .to 1 p.m. Saturday. I presume that the parents start at home and take the children and the pets to the park.
As Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook says, "the rule governing the use of these two verbs is quite simple: Use take to indicate direction away from the speaker; use bring to indicate direction toward the speaker." In the instances cited above, though, the speaker is not involved at all. That makes it harder, I suppose, for writers to decide. Still, I think the perspective is important. Where the action starts is the determining factor for me in preferring take.
I've written about bring and take before, and in that post, I cited a very good treatment of bring and take by John McIntyre. He takes on the persnickety among us.
P.S. McIntyre recently was laid off from his job as head of the copy desk at The Baltimore Sun. He has a new blog that I will continue to turn to. If there is such a thing as a star among copy editors, it is John.
Comments
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I think we should always
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 08:31 — airforceoneI think we should always abide to this - Use take to indicate direction away from the speaker; use bring to indicate direction toward the speaker. jordan shoes mainly include nike jordan and womens jordan shoes. While custom air force ones are always loved by air force heads nowadays. For nike air force shoes, mainly stocks air force ones and womens nike air force shoes. Others include jordan fusion and air jordan fusion, kids nike shoes, big jordan shoes buy online. All above are free shipping shoes with reward points.
I know the differences since
Sun, 08/23/2009 - 20:23 — ninaninaI know the differences since I was in secondary school, when my English talked about that. There are many other English words that need to be differentiated. free advertising |part time jobs |latex mattress
Choice DEFINES speaker
Sun, 06/14/2009 - 10:04 — breakPRranksI must disagree with you, Pam, concerning the example from Dog Days. In this instance, there's no doubt whatsoever that the sentence represents an invitation extended by the speaker (the Town of Cary) to readers. Citizens are being cordially invited by the town to bring their dogs and family to the event. In other words, "Y'all come and sit a spell."
If you replace "bring" with "take," you alter the meaning and intent of the author but turning the sentence into a directive, not unlike a command one would give a dog, as a matter of fact. Here, the speaker uses "bring" in order to define, or identify, itself and its attitude toward the reader, which is most definitely not that of master and beast.
I believe you mean
Mon, 06/15/2009 - 09:01 — baldezar"set a spell."
Re: Choice
Mon, 06/15/2009 - 08:00 — Pam_Nelson (author)Thank you for your well-reasoned comment. I read the sentence as coming from the newspaper's writer, rather than from the organizers. Perhaps recasting the sentence as "You may take your children and pets ... " would make it clear that our writer was not commanding folks either to bring or to take, but merely stating the fact the people were invited to come to the park.
But, indeed, if I read the sentence in a flier published by the Town of Cary, I would not be thrown by "bring."
Pam Nelson
Triangle Grammar Guide