A very short English lesson on BORROWING

Following @ReadaBook on Twitter has confirmed that many - if not most? - second-language English speakers in South Africa use the word "BORROW" incorrectly. Could it be that they have been taught this way by second-language teachers who also didn't know? Anyway, here is the CORRECT way!

Let's take the subject matter of @ReadaBook as an example: someone said to someone else: "ask so-and-so if they will BORROW you that book". The correct word here is LEND. In Afrikaans, for example, there is only one word, leen, but in English:

- the one who GIVES the book is the LENDER, and s/he LENDS the book to 

- the one who RECEIVES or TAKES the book (to return it!!!) BORROWS it and is the BORROWER.

Likewise, banks LEND you money (well, mostly they don't) and you BORROW money from banks. 

In all cases, the ACTIVE, GIVING participant LENDS and the one on the RECEIVING end BORROWS.