bring (towards) versus take (to) - Confusing ...

bring (towards) versus take (to)
Please can a fluent Polish speaker sort out my confusion re how these two English verbs are used in Polish? Many thanks in advance ...
Please correct me if I'm wrong ... I would translate 'please bring me a jug of water' as 'proszę, przynieś mi dzbanek wody'.
If I'm asking somene to bring me something (by hand) I think I'm OK with the verb and grammar. But if I wish to say 'Take this book to the teacher' (by hand again) which verb for 'to take' would a Pole use? wziąć, zanieść ?? or another verb? In English instead of saying 'take' we could say 'give'. Would Polish people do the same? If so, then 'Take this book to the teacher' would be 'Daj nauczycielowi książkę'. The sense I'm trying to convey is 'taking something away from me to give to someone else' who is in a different room, or part of a house for example. I do apologise for being so long-winded.

I think you are mostly right.
The first translation is perfect.
Take to will be zanieść which is fomed from the verb nieść (to carry) so it can be roughly translated "carry to". "Wziąć" is not good in this situation becouse it refers to sitation when the "doer" takes something towards him (piks someting up).

"to give"="dać" sigtly canges the mieaning becouse give means to give in hand or to give sombody something to own it and "zanieść" can also mean just to put the book on a teacher's table.

Lukasz

I guess then the distinction between 'to bring someone' vs. 'to give someone' in Polish is as it is English: 'Przynieś mi chleb!' vs. 'Daj mi chleb!'

The differences are quite subtle, but to bring in some order, I'd suggest the following (I hope other native Poles agree):


- in this case mostly "zanieś/daj tę książkę nauczycielowi" (if it's not just a normal house, but a big palace with wings and the teacher is really far, several hundreds meters for example, then rather only "zanieś", not "daj" *).

- if you were saying it to someone who visits you and then goes to another place (building or even town) by train, car, bus, tram etc., where you know he/she will meet the teacher, then rather "weź tę książkę dla nauczyciela" or "(od)daj tę książkę nauczycielowi"

- if you're asking someone to go to some distant place only to deliver the book to someone, and these persons wouldn't normally meet if not to fulfill your request, then "zanieś/zawieź tę książkę nauczycielowi" (I hope you know the difference between "nieść" - when you go on foot - and "wieźć" - when you go by car, bus etc.).

- * "daj tę książkę nauczycielowi" is more generic, but for me it implies the two persons will meet anyway for other reasons or that the recipient of the the action (i.e. the teacher) isn't far away from a place where the person fulfilling you're request is (or will be).

Cheers again, Krzyśiu!!-:) Wszystko w porządku, now it's clear.

Pozdrawiam, kolege.

Hi Krzysztof!

Many thanks for explanation. I think I understand how this 'bringing' and 'taking' business works... Yes, lots of nuances re distance, who knows whom, on foot or by transport etc. It will all take a lot of practice! By the way, yes, I'm OK with the difference between nosić/nieść and wozić/wieźć (on foot vis-a-vis by transport). It's like chodzić/iść and jeździć/jechać; I believe ...

Pozdrawiam/Many thanks, David