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take

teɪk

Buses, pills, and ten minutes all get taken

The picture Your hand reaches out, closes on one thing, and pulls it back toward you. Only the thing in your grip changes. BRING carries something toward here; TAKE picks something up and carries it away.

Core verbs

Where the picture shows up in take

  1. carry it in hand

    Take this form to the counter.

    teɪk ðɪs fɔːrm tuː ðə ˈkaʊntər

    Bring this form over to the counter.

    Holding the form in your hand and walking it over to the counter.

  2. grab a ride

    I take the bus to work.

    aɪ teɪk ðə bʌs tuː wɜːrk

    I go to work by bus.

    Picking one bus out of the line of traffic and stepping onto it.

  3. grab your minutes

    It takes about ten minutes.

    ɪt teɪks əˈbaʊt ten ˈmɪnɪts

    It's about a ten-minute job.

    Ten minutes of sand draining out of an hourglass.

    Here the task is the one grabbing — that's why the subject isn't a person.

  4. put it inside you

    Take your medicine after meals.

    teɪk jʊr ˈmedɪsən ˈæftər miːlz

    Have your medicine after meals.

    Pinching a pill between your fingers and putting it in your mouth.

  5. claim it for yourself

    She took the day off.

    ʃiː tʊk ðə deɪ ɔːf

    She had the day off.

    Tearing one day off the calendar and keeping it for yourself.

All of it in one picture

take is one gesture: your hand reaches out and picks something up. Pick up the form and you carry it; pick out the bus and you ride it; pick up the pill and it goes inside you. When the thing picked up is time, that is how long something takes, and when it is a day, that is a day off. Every take keeps the same trace of a hand reaching out and choosing.

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