Take your time learning 'to take'!
So we understand the verb: to Take. As in the
examples above, you can take a lot
of things. This usually means you are going to do something, an action. You
might grab something or someone and move away to another location, take some
medicine = to consume or eat it, take a test = someone will give you a quiz or
exam to complete, take a nap = to have a short sleep........
But this common English verb gets waaaaaaay more complicated! There are over 60 popular phrasal verbs that use Take + a preposition ( and sometimes with an adverb)
Can you learn all of them today? No. Let's look at a few of the most commonly used. Present tense: take / takes, Past tense: took, Participle: taken.
Take off A plane takes off = departs, leaves A business can become successful so you might say "His business took off last year and now he is thinking about expanding." You can take off your shoes when you enter a house.
Take on To acquire, to obtain "I have taken on several new students from Europe" To begin or start something = "I am taking on a new project and I think it will be quite difficult."
Take over To replace someone, to do the work for someone else, usually a temporary situation. A substitute teacher can take over classes for your regular teacher who might be sick. This is temporary. The teacher is taking over the class until the regular teacher comes back. President Trump took over after Obama lost the election. Many Americans hope this is temporary!!
Take out This can be an action involving food or people! Take-out food is what you have delivered or what you order in a restaurant and carry away with you as you leave. Take someone out on a date. Q:" Are you going to ask her out on a date? A: Yes I will take her out this weekend.
- Notice that a phrasal verb can be separated with a pronoun, a noun or even a phrase in-between the 2 parts of the verb. take HER out, take MY SON out shopping, take THE NEW GIRL WHO JUST STARTED TO WORK HERE out for lunch
Take back To accept possession of something that was previously yours. "Take back your book now, I am finished with it." Sometimes if a couple have broken up or ended their relationship, they will discuss and decide to resume their relationship. Then we could say "She took him back / He took her back." Actually, it is more common and nicer to say: They got back together.
Here is a link for some more examples but be aware that it will take a lot of time to learn all of these phrasal verbs! Take your time, Take it easy, and Take care! If you want to take some English lessons, try Ole Academy for your 1st lesson Free.