Confusing English Verbs LEND BORROW
Hello! I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
Welcome back to another lesson about
confusing English verbs
because some English verbs are quite similar
and sometimes it’s hard to know which one
is the right one to use.
Last week, I talked about the verbs, been and gone.
In this lesson, I’ll be talking about the verbs
‘to lend’ and ‘to borrow’.
And they’re confusing because the meanings
happen to be very similar
but different.
But don’t worry, in this lesson,
I’ll be sharing some tips
to help you use these verbs correctly
and remember which one is the correct one to use.
Just like the difference between been and gone,
the main difference between ‘to lend’ and ‘to borrow’
is the direction of the action.
Okay, so what do these verbs actually mean?
‘To lend’ means to give something to someone
for a short period of time
and you expect to get it back again.
I’ll lend you some money when I get paid.
He lent his car to a friend for the weekend.
It’s important to note that with this verb,
there is a difference
between British and American English.
Lend is used in British English
and instead, loan is used in American English.
Now, lend is an irregular verb
so the past tense form becomes lent.
Loan is a regular verb so it becomes
loaned in the past tense.
Can you lend me some money?
Can you loan me some money?
Both of these sentences are the same.
Okay, so lend means to give something to someone
for a short period of time
and you can expect it back again.
Now, when we use borrow, we simply need to switch
the action to the person who is receiving the item.
‘To borrow’ means to get something from someone
with the intention of giving it back.
You don’t plan to keep it
and the person who gave it to you
expects to receive it back again.
Now, borrow is a regular past tense verb
so we just need to add -ed to make it borrowed
in the past tense.
Right, so let me show you.
Lend is similar to give.
And borrow is similar to take or receive.
But both of these verbs mean
that the action only happens for a short period of time.
Let’s take a closer look.
Can you lend me your car for the weekend?
Can I borrow your car for the weekend?
These two sentences are describing
exactly the same situation
but from a different perspective.
The subject, so the person who is doing the action,
is different in each sentence
so the verb must be different too.
You can’t say “Can I lend me your car for the weekend?”
Because the car is not mine
so I can’t lend the car to me
or to anyone else for that matter.
You can only lend something if it belongs to you.
You also can’t say, “Can you borrow me your car?”
And this is a really common mistake.
The person who owns the car cannot borrow it.
Getting the information about who’s giving and who’s
taking something is really important
when you’re using these verbs.
So, let’s make sure you’re getting that part right.
So we have the subject and lend.
Now remember, the subject is the person
who is doing the action,
so the person who is lending
or who owns the object.
We have subject with lend with our object pronoun
and our object.
So the object pronoun tells us
who is receiving the action.
Can you lend me some money?
Now, lend can also be directly followed by the object
but if you want to say who’s receiving the action,
you need to use the preposition, to.
So subject, lend, object,
to someone.
Can you lend some money to me?
Now, when using borrow
you can’t use an object pronoun after the verb.
You can’t say “Can you borrow me your car?”
But you can use subject with borrow and the object.
Can I borrow a pen?
And then you can add the preposition, from,
and the person.
Can I borrow a pen from you?
Can you lend a pen to Paul?
Okay are you ready to practise with me?
Practise using lend and borrow.
When I …. you my hairdryer, you said you’d give it back!
When I lent you my hair dryer,
you said, you’d give it back!
Now, there’s an object pronoun here,
so it can’t be borrow, can it?
And also take note of the tense
used in the second clause.
The past simple. So your verb needs to reflect this.
They said we could … their lawnmower.
Which one is it?
They said we could borrow their lawnmower.
Their lawnmower is not ours so it must be borrow.
He’ll … him the money if he really needs it.
He’ll lend him the money if he really needs it.
So there’s an object pronoun here so it can’t be borrow.
She asked me if she could … $500.
She asked me if she could borrow $500.
Now the clue here is in the verb asked.
The person who is lending the item is not asking for it
are they?
So it must be borrow.
Okay well I hope that lesson was useful for you.
Just remember that lend is to give and
and borrow is to take.
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Bye for now!