LEND or BORROW British English Grammar
hello and welcome back to english with
Lucy I’m trying again with my new
microphone hopefully it works will will
see today we’re going to be talking
about two verbs that often confuse my
students and the verbs are to lend and
to borrow now these verbs are so
confusing because they mean roughly the
same thing the only difference is the
direction now I’ve got some secret
tricks that I can give you today that
will make sure that you use these verbs
correctly 100% of the time I’ve got some
good methods of remembering which is
which and we’re going to put them into
practice today as well so firstly what
do they mean well to lend means to give
something to somebody for a limited
amount of time so you expect to receive
it back to borrow on the other hand
means to receive something for a limited
amount of time and they expect you to
give it back
so to lend means to give and to borrow
means to receive both for a limited
amount of time the verb to borrow is
regular the infinitive to borrow the
past simple borrowed and the past
participle borrowed again lend on the
other hand is irregular the infinitive
lend the past simple lent and the past
participle lent now I always tell my
students that in order to remember it
you need to think of the syllables lend
one syllable give one syllable borrow
two syllables receive two syllables so
we know that lend give borrow receive
easier that so let’s put this into
practice then I’m going to use my lovely
cousins John and Katie
John and Katie I hope you don’t mind
so John needs ten pounds and
Katie have 10 Pam so John could say
Katie can you lend me 10 pounds he could
also say Katie can I borrow 10 pounds
but he could not say Katie can you
borrow me 10 pounds and that’s a mistake
that I often hear now Katie has got the
10 pounds and she would like to give it
to John for that limited amount of time
so she could say yes John I can lend you
10 pounds she could also say yes John
you can borrow 10 pounds but she can’t
say yes John I can borrow you 10 pounds
so just remember that so make sure you
understand the direction in this
situation John has borrowed ten pounds
from Katie same situation different
direction
katie has lent 10 pounds to John so John
has borrowed from Katie he’s received
the 10 pounds and katie has lent 10
pounds to John
she given him 10 pounds so hopefully
that is a little bit clearer now I would
like to test you so we’re going to have
a quiz I’m going to give you 5 seconds
to guess the answer and then the answer
will appear ok so let’s look at number
one could you owe me your Ferrari could
you me your Ferrari which one will it be
ok
the answer is lend could you lend me
your Ferrari and we know that it’s lend
because we’ve got me I could say could
you give me your Ferrari
I couldn’t say could you receive me your
Ferrari so if you’re in doubt try it we
give or receive and that should tell you
which one it will be ok number 2 no way
last time you my Ferrari you crashed it
no way last time you my Ferrari you
crashed it which will it be okay
the answer is borrowed make sure you
think of the verb in its correct form no
way last time you borrowed my Ferrari
you crashed it no way last time you
borrowed my Ferrari you crashed it so
number three I mmm this t-shirt from
Felicity I this t-shirt from felicity
which one is it it’s borrowed the reason
it’s borrowed is because we’ve got from
I borrow from I lend to okay number four
did you him your ps4 did you him your
ps4 which one is it it lend did you lend
him your ps4 did you lend him your ps4
we’ve got him so we know it’s lent okay
number five
you shouldn’t mmm money you shouldn’t
mmm money which one is it this one’s
difficult okay this one was a trick one
it can be both borrow or lend you
shouldn’t lend money you shouldn’t
borrow money that’s not my opinion right
all right guys that’s it for today’s
lesson you should now understand how to
use lend and borrow correctly just a
quick reminder for you I now do a free
live pronunciation lesson every Sunday
at 4:30
London GMT time and this is on my
facebook page which is called English
with Lucy so the lesson lasts one hour
and through
out that hour you can write your
pronounciation queries ru words that you
don’t know how to pronounce and I will
pronounce them for you and it’s great
fun we did it last week as well and
loads of you tuned in and I’m starting
to recognize more and more names and
it’s really nice to chat with you
so make sure you tune in for that don’t
forget to connect with me on all of my
social media which is right here in
front of my face and I’ll see you very
very soon for another lesson
yeah now Katie could reply firstly with
no way now I’ve got some tricks that I’m
going to tell you today that will