Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 310. The title of today's lesson is the difference between to friend, befriend, and make friends. So we're looking at friend as a verb. We're not looking at friend as a noun. Everybody knows that. That's simple but we're looking at all three as verbs. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. To friend as a verb, to mean to make friends is a very old use that is rarely used now. So usually we say that we make friends with someone. We don't usually say I friended someone yesterday. That's that sounds awkward. It sounds weird. We don't usually hear that. However to friend as a verb has adopted a new meaning with the advent of the Internet. With the beginning of the Internet, we now use to friend to mean to be added as a friend on a social media website or somebody's page, especially Facebook. So that's the most common you know. You could say that you know, you friended someone meaning you added them to your Facebook page as a friend. You could do that, but we don't usually say to friend somebody like in real life. If we meet them and you become friends but on social websites, we do use it. And in the same sense, you can also say to unfriend. Like if you had somebody as a friend on one of your social websites and I don't know maybe they made you angry or whatever the situation was you don't want them as a friend anymore, you could unfriend them just as easily on the social website. Okay. Let's continue. Befriend has a more formal use. So befriend really does mean make friends. It is but it's used in a different way. It means more like to adopt someone as a friend and treat him in a friendly way, especially, these are the points you should pay attention to, especially someone who is lonely, far from home, or needs help. So usually the person who's giving help or helping out the person or training the person or kind of adopting the person as a friend, they're the one that befriends that person. We don't usually go both ways with it. Okay. So yes, in a friendly way means ... usually it is an older person or a person with more authority or someone who can give help, help is to the person befriends the other one. Just like what I said. All right. Let's continue. To make friends is the most common way we express meeting someone and becoming their friend. So usually when you meet a person and the two of you hit it off. You like each other. You know, you know, of course just in a regular way and it doesn't have to be romantic. It just means that you made friends. Both people make friends with each other. Yeah. So it's kind of on a very much on a mutual or even basis. When you befriend someone, it's usually the person that's kind of helping out or aiding the other person is the one that we say befriend. Actually befriend I think in British English can also have the meaning of to aid or to help as well. Okay. So let's just look at some examples here. Example number one. I friended him on my Facebook page. So only on the social media do we usually use friend that way. That you added their name as a friend on this media. After we broke up, I unfriended her from Facebook. So again well I just like I said you could use unfriend in the same sense. Number three. When I first came to this company I was befriended by a senior employee who showed me the ropes. Yeah. This kind of covers almost all of them. As somebody who's older. Somebody more in authority. Somebody more experienced, kind of help them out. You know, showed them the way. Then in that sense kind of befriended that person. So again, usually somebody that the one that's making friends that's helping out somebody is the one that befriends. And the last one of course you know, I made friends with one of my classmates on my first day at that school. So yeah. That's the most common way. So just think of make friends for almost everything else. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
A2 US facebook social facebook page kind page lesson English tutor Nick P Lesson (310) The Difference Between Friend, Befriend and Make Friends 66 2 anitawu12 posted on 2019/04/25 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary