| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about borrowing and lending expressions. I'm going to share some sample requests you can use for borrowing and lending things, and I'm going to introduce some time expressions you can use with these requests to make more specific questions. Let's begin. |
| Okay. First, I want to look at a category for expressions you can use when you want something. You want to receive something, in other words. Let's look at the first sentence here then. It's, "Will you lend me your car?" Here, we're using the verb "lend," and the person receiving the item follows the verb "lend." In this case, me. Who is receiving it? Me. I am receiving it. The item I'm receiving, your car, comes after the person receiving it. In this case, "lend" is used, but let's look at the opposite of this question. |
| "Can I borrow some money?" Here, the verb "borrow" is being used but the person receiving, in this case, money, the person receiving the item is the subject here. "Can I borrow some money?" Here, we're not saying, "Can I borrow some money from you?" You can include, "Can I borrow some money from you?" That's okay. But here, it's understood. We understand the speaker wants to borrow money from the listener. This is a key difference. When the verb used is "lend," the person receiving the item is the object of the verb. However, when the verb is "borrow," the person receiving the item is the subject. This is something to keep in mind. |
| Let's look at some other examples. Here, I'm not using the word "lend" and I'm not using the word "borrow." Here, I'm using "use." "Can I use some item for a minute?" This specifically includes a verb. What am I going to do? I'm going to use the item. "Can I use your pen for a minute? Can I use your computer for a minute? Can I use your phone for a minute?" "For a minute" means a short period of time. Literally, it means 60 seconds but this indicates just a short period of time, about a minute perhaps. |
| Another one. If you don't want to use "will" or "can," you can also use just a simple "please" statement. This is not a question but, "Please lend me," something, something, something. "Please lend me your car. Please lend me your pen." This sounds quite formal, actually. "Please lend me." Keep in mind though we cannot use "please borrow." We can't say, "Please borrow me." That's incorrect. We can only use "lend" here. "Please lend me something." |
| Okay. Let's go, though, to the next category here which is borrowing and lending for someone else. In these sentences, I've included "you" and "me" as the basic pattern. However, if you're talking about someone else or you want to ask person A for something for person B, how do you explain that? Let's look at these examples. First, similar to this, "Will you lend, person, your item." This is very similar to this pattern here. I've replaced "me" with "person" here. "Will you lend your classmate your pencil? Will you lend your teacher the paper?" Something you want comes at the end of the sentence here, and the person follows the verb right here. |
| We can do the same thing when we're using the verb "borrow," as we did in this example sentence. Here, we've replaced "I" in the original sentence with "person." "Can, person, borrow your item?" Again, because we're using "borrow," the person receiving the item is the subject of the verb. "Can my roommate borrow your car? Can my parents borrow your house for the weekend?" for example. Just keep in mind that these two verbs always follow the same rule about the positioning of the subject and the object and the person receiving or giving the item. |
| Let's look at one more example though. This is quite a complex situation because the person lending the item and the person receiving the item are not participating in the conversation. The speaker and the listener are talking about some other group of people, for example. Here, "I wonder if person A can borrow item from person B." Here, we need specifically to describe who is person A and who is person B. They're not participating in the conversation. "I wonder if my dad can borrow a tool from my uncle," for example. These two people are not participating in the conversation but were discussing the possibility. This is how we would do it. This is one example of them. |
| Alright. Just to recap then. These are the simple requests that I'm using and that you can use when you're doing borrowing and lending conversation practice. "Can I, will you, and please." You'll notice "please" is not made as a question. "Please" is just a statement. "Can I" and "will you" are actual questions there. Just remember, "Can I borrow? Will you lend?" because the subjects of the sentence indicate different people are receiving and giving the item. |
| Also, just to review as well, this is a key point from this lesson. When you're using the verb "lend," the person receiving the item is the object of the verb as in here. "Please lend me your car. Will you lend me your car?" "Me" is the object here. When you're using the verb "borrow," the person receiving the item is the subject of the verb, as we saw here. "Can I borrow some money?" "I" is the subject. "I am receiving the money," in this case. |
| Okay. With that, I want to look at some time expressions that you can add to your request. I talked about it in this point here. "Can I use something for a minute?" That's an example of a time expression we can use to make our requests a little more specific. I've used two patterns here. The first group uses "for." The second group uses "until." Remember, we use "for" for a period of time, a time period, a length of time, in other words. Here, "for a minute," I talked about before. "For a bit" is a casual way to say a short period of time. "For a sec," a sec is short for a second. Also, a very short period of time. Literally, not a second, one second but very short period of time. Here, specifically, "for a week" and "for a year." These are just some examples of lengths of time you can use to add to your request. |
| In the other group, "until." Here, we see some situations that might happen that would cause the speaker to return the item they have borrowed, or to return the item they have been lending. "Can I borrow your car until I get a new one?" for example. Or, "Can I borrow your calculator until I find mine?" These sentences, or rather, these time expressions show, for example, "Can I borrow your calculator until I find mine?" means at the point in time I find my calculator, I will return your calculator to you. "Until I find mine" shows that. Another one. "Until I can pay you back." This would be used for money. We talked about here, "Can I borrow some money until I can pay you back?" It's quite a risky question perhaps, but "until I can pay you back" is one example. Here are some more specific ones with time. "Until tomorrow," so until this point in time, "until the test." Again, a specific point in time. |
| We can use "until" and "for" with our requests for borrowing and lending. I hope that that helps you make some more specific questions. Anyway, those are all the things that I want to talk about for this lesson. If you have any questions, comments or would like to practice making sentences or requests, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye. |
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