“Bring” vs. “take” in American English

Question

English (other than American English) has a clear differentiation between the two words. Both are about translocating something. In "bring" the something of somebody is moved to where the speaker is currently situated. "Take" is used to translocate something or somebody to a place that the speaker is not currently at.

You cannot “bring” your books to school if you are currently at home. You can only take them to school. Most of the time one can get the meaning from the context of the sentence but it can get very confusing when the other party is on the telephone and you do not know their location.

Why does American English not differentiate and when did it lose the differentiation?

Answer 1

I disagree that American English has lost the distinction between bring and take; it’s just that the distinction is different. In American English, bring and take are not complementary—instead, bring is not obligatorily bound to the location of the speaker, whereas take is. That is, the location binding of bring is what Merriam-Webster calls “toward the place from which the action is being regarded”; one should consider that the place where the utterance is made is not always the same as the place from which the action is being regarded (especially in e.g. a telephone conversation). Take meaning convey, on the other hand, is always to a location that is not where the speaker is.

You can say “Bring your books to school”, whether you are at school or at home, but you can only say “Take your books to school” if you are not at school.

Answer 2

Because Americans are lazy? (This is coming from an American)

Honestly, I think "proper" English of all forms should make the distinction, but it's just not use colloquialy because there's usually enough context around the word to make the meaning clear, and people just don't care enough to be correct about it.

I was taught English in the Midwestern United States, and we were taught to make the distinction. But outside of formal writing I rarely see anyone give it a second thought.

Answer 3

I speak Canadian English, so I don't know if this answer is relevant to you. But I would that your definition of "bring" allows a little lee-way, at least for colloquial use:

Take your books to school.

?Bring your books to school.

The second sentence is technically only correct if the speaker is at school, right? But given that this imperative statement is being told to someone, when they perform the action they are doing both, taking their books and bringing them to school. So I don't see it as strictly wrong for the parent to tell their child (while at home) to bring their books to school (when they next go to the school).

I would say that "He brought his books to school" is correct no matter where the speaker is.

Answer 4

American English does differentiate, just differently from British English. I would say that part of the distinction in English is that "bring" puts the emphasis on the object going to somewhere (with you) and "take" puts the emphasis on the object coming from somewhere (with you).

Imagining two people in a living room speaking to each other, no-one speaking grammatically would say, "Bring your sister from her room to the car." Americans and Brits alike would say, "Take your sister from her room to the car." The phrase "from her room" requires "take." However, Americans might say, "When your sister leaves her room, bring her to the car."

"Take" also has an additional meaning that "bring" does not have. One can take something away from another person or location. "Bring" does not work in this context at all. Thus, "Take your sister from her room," if the goal is to remove her from her room and without any specific destination. "Take the toy from your sister" only works with "take." American and British English agree on this point.

Answer 5

I think a few of the Americans on here are in denial - like the original poster, I hear this distinction all the time. There's a pretty good summing up here.