I am in need of chairs on Tuesday. Anyone willing to borrow one to me? Let me know and I will pick it up!!! THANKS!!!"
The use of the word borrow in the above statement is an honest and common mistake, let's see if we can fix it.
Interestingly enough, the concepts of 'borrowing' and 'loaning' seem to be humongous challenges in the use of the English language because these concepts relate to action taken and direction intended.
As an adult English Language Learner this concept was very new to me and my GED Teacher explained it very well, it made a lot of sense. However, after going out into the English-speaking world I found it interesting that the difference between 'loan' and 'borrow' was often www.borrowme.com
misused.
Experience and my good friend Webster (Dictionary) have taught me that the term 'loan' is a noun and means the act of letting someone else use something that you personally already own. The term 'borrow' is a transitive verb and means something someone else already owns and gives you permission to use.
Both of these terms when properly used make a lot of sense.
Let's elaborate with some examples:
Your car, your books, your shoes: Yes, you can loan out things that you already own. For example: you can loan out your car to your son, you can loan out your books to your co-worker, and you can also loan out your shoes to a friend.
However, you can never 'borrow' out your car to your son, or 'borrow' out your books to your co-worker, or 'borrow' out your shoes to a friend.
