Bring vs Take

By Judy Vorfeld

While there are many mean­ings for both “bring” and “take, many peo­ple are divided over usage like “Please take it with you” vs. “Please bring it with you.”

The Gregg Reference Manual, Ninth Edition, says:

“Bring” indi­cates motion toward the speaker. “Take” indi­cates motion away from the speaker.

Please bring the research data with you when you next come to the office. Please take the enclosed let­ter to Farley when you go to see him. You may take my copy with you if you will bring it back by Friday.

And the fol­low­ing from Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, which also sug­gests “bring to” and “take away.”

BRING
1 a : to con­vey, lead, carry, or cause to come along with one toward the place from which the action is being regarded b : to cause to be, act, or move in a spe­cial way: as (1) : ATTRACT (2) : PERSUADE, INDUCE (3) : FORCE, COMPEL (4) : to cause to come into a par­tic­u­lar state or con­di­tion c dialect : ESCORT, ACCOMPANY

TAKE
1 : to get into one’s hands or into one’s pos­ses­sion, power, or con­trol: as a : to seize or cap­ture phys­i­cally b : to get
pos­ses­sion of (as fish or game) by killing or cap­tur­ing c (1) : to move against (as an opponent’s piece in chess) and remove from play (2) : to win in a card game d : to acquire by emi­nent domain

Other than these sim­pli­fied guide­lines, how they are used cor­rectly depends entirely on their con­text. Further, American English usage and British
English usage differ.

Here are some URLS with more infor­ma­tion:
University of Michigan
Bring Versus Take