Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi, there. My name's Ronnie. Are you confused? I'm confused a lot. But, I mean, about English, because this is what you're here for. I'm going to teach you today about two confusing verbs that maybe, after this lesson, will not be confusing. Yes! The two verbs that are very confusing in English are "get" and "take"; or "got" in the past tense and "took". So, you might be translating from your language, and you would say: "I took a beer", and maybe your friend goes: "Oh my god, that's terrible." And you say: "Well, no, it was delicious. I quite liked the beer." So, we have to be careful when we use these two verbs. And it's a little bit difficult to explain, but hopefully I can do it. Yes. Come on. Go. Confusing verbs: "get", "take"; "got", "took". The easiest way for you to think about this is: "got" is going to be a passive situation for you. So, think about it, that you are not doing anything; you're just sitting there, looking dull-eyed at something, and someone is going to-dunh-dunh-dunh-dunh-give you something. So, if you can understand that "get" and "got" is passive; that someone gives it or gave it to you - this is the foundation of understanding "get" and "got". In this situation, you're going to have two people: You and the person who actually gives you something. Stay with me, here. "Take" and "took" is going to be only one person; it's going to be you, and you are doing the action. So, we can think that this verb is going to be active; there's only you and you are doing the action. So, you do or you did something to get, or to achieve, or to obtain the item. In this one, someone gi-... La. Give. Someone gave it to you or someone gives it to you. We need the "s" here, because this is singular. So, someone gives it to you or someone gave it to you. Think about in a restaurant. You're sitting in a restaurant or a bar, and you would like a drink. You're thirsty. You want a big glass of milk. So, you wait there and the server comes over, and they give you the milk. Yes, you're so happy. So, you take the milk and you drink it. So, what about a beer? Are you going to say: "I got a beer" or "I took a beer"? What's the difference? If you say: "I got a beer", it means that someone gave you the beer; someone delivered you the beer. But if you say: "I took a beer", you have to be careful, because this means that you are stealing. Uh-oh. So, if you take something, you have to be careful. If you take it without permission, it's stealing. But if someone says: "Here, here, here. Take this", then it's okay. So, if you say: "I took a beer", this can have two meanings. One, it can mean that you went to the fridge; you took the beer yourself. There's nobody else to serve you or to give you a beer. The second meaning with this is that you're actually stealing the beer, so you go, and you take the beer. So, "take" has the extra element of having permission or without permission. So, "permission" means someone said it's okay; and without permission, you are stealing it. So, without permission is illegal, and I do not recommend it; unless you want to steal some money from a bank and then give it to me. That's a good thing. I will take your money. Okay? Give me your money. I'm going to get your money. Give it to me. Let's go through some examples. Let's see if this makes sense to you. So, I want you to think. If we have the noun: "a cold"-achoo-do you get a cold or do you take a cold? So, colds or viruses are transmitted through people, so logically, this is two people; someone actually gives you a cold. So, the correct answer here would be... Uh-oh. I got a cold because somebody gave it to me. Ya-. No, that's a bad thing. This word: "a flyer". Do you know what the noun, "a flyer" means? Not someone who flies. "A flyer" is like a brochure or a paper advertisement. So, you can go to the mall or you can go somewhere, and people will have flyers. Now, usually there's a flyer sitting on a counter. What do you do? Do you get the flyer or do you take it? You take the flyer, because it's only you. Nobody is saying: "Here. Here; have a flyer." You are going to take a flyer. Next one. In supermarkets, sometimes people are very nice and they give you free food. Yay. This is called "a sample". So, "a sample" means a small portion of something you get for free. Usually they put a tray on a counter, or they hold it, and they say: "Take one. Do it. Take one." So you are physically taking the sample. So, again, you would use "take", because you're grabbing it. You do the next one. "A raise". Let me tell you what it is first. So, "a raise" means an increase in your pay. This is a very good thing. So, do you take a raise or do you get a raise? Thinking time. The answer is: "get" or "got". So, your boss gives you the raise, and there's two people, so you can say: "I got a raise" or "I get a raise". Next one. Uh-oh. This is with money as well. A paycheck. "A paycheck" means your pay at the end of your slaving work hours. So, do you think that you can steal a paycheck? Can you take a paycheck or do you think you get a paycheck? Does someone give you the paycheck or do you physically obtain the paycheck? What do you think? The answer is "got". So, your boss or someone gives you the paycheck, so you got the paycheck. Do you get it now? Do you get it? Oh, I hope so. Do this one. A coffee. So, you and your friends are tired and you say: "Hey, let's go ____ a coffee." Are you going to take a coffee or get a coffee? Do you have money? If you have money, you are going to get the coffee because someone in the coffee shop is going to make it for you and they're going to give it to you. So, you got the coffee. Now, if you don't have any money or you're feeling a bit mischievous, and you say: "I took the coffee", that would mean that you stole it, which is not good. Don't steal coffee. Steal money. Rob banks; give it to me. A new car. Oh, by the way, if you would like to buy me a new car, I really like Hondas. Oh, you don't want to give me a new car. Maybe I will take a new car. So, if I take a new car, I would go to jail because I'm stealing. So, I would get or I got a new car because you gave it to me. Thank you. I can have more than one. So, Ronnie got new cars from the help of everyone out there. Oh, no I didn't? Okay. So, you would say: "I got new cars." For Ronnie. If you took the car, you would be stealing it. Bad people; don't steal cars. What about this one? If I say: "I ____ a car." This is an example. If you steal it, you would say: "I took a car", but don't tell people. Right? Then you get caught. So, this, if you take a car, this is without permission; very bad. The last one: If you are on medication or you have to take some drugs... No, no, no, not that kind of drugs. We call medication "pills", so pills are things that the doctor gives you to help you. Do you think you get pills every day or do you take pills every day? So, you think about it. You wake up in the morning, there are the pills. There's no one there. There's no one there to serve you the pills, so you are going to do the action yourself; you are going to take your pills. So, you can say: "I took..." or "Every day I take my pills." So, I want you to understand something very important about English grammar and confusing verbs is a lot of the time there are exceptions to the rules or exceptions to an idea. For example, if I say: "I am going to take a dump"... "Why is that funny, Ronnie? 'Take a dump', what does that mean? Why? Where are you taking it and what is a dump?" So, a dump means a poo or number two, or a big... I can't say that word; it's a bad word, but it's "s-h-i-t". So, if you have to take a big dump, you're going to say: "I am going to take a dump." And then it's confusing because when you do the action, there's only one person. I hope. Right? There's only one of you. And you don't need permission; you're doing it yourself. But you're not actually receiving anything. The toilet is receiving something, but you're not. So this is an exception to the rule. You're definitely not... someone's definitely not giving you the dump; that would be disgusting, but you're taking the dump. So, we have to be careful with our English verbs because there are many exceptions to this. I'm going to take a lesson. Huh? Are you stealing my lessons? Oh. Are you stealing my lessons again? Flattery. No, don't steal my lessons. So, if you take something without permission, somebody might steal your poo. Go ahead. You got my poo. Awesome. So, confusing verbs: "get", "got"; "take", "took". They're so confusing, we have extra rules for them. If you have more confusing verbs that you would like me to put in a lovely video, please comment; and maybe, if you're lucky, I'll do them for you. Okay? Go. Comment. Bye.
A2 US beer flyer paycheck permission dump stealing What's the difference between GET and TAKE? 130 9 Hui-Ju Tsai posted on 2019/03/04 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary