In speech it isn’t always clear whether someone says brought or bought, but I really hate seeing them written in the wrong context so here are definitions to help people get them right…
bought: to have purchased something. It is the past tense of the word buy.
They bought their car from a registered dealer
brought: to have carried or taken something/someone with you. It is the past tense of the word bring.
She brought a friend with her to the conference.
‘After you bring something you’ve brought it’ is a handy reminder of which is which as many people get confused over these two words.
[...] P.S. I explained the past tense of buy (bought) as a Monday Meaning last year. [...]
People who use “brought” when the correct term would be “bought” are [very annoying and I don't like this error.]
Obviously everyone has different skills and making spelling mistakes doesn’t necessarily reflect on people’s value or intelligence. However, it is very annoying at times to see such mistakes and I understand your frustration, Martin!
Hopefully, this post has helped at least a few people learn the difference between brought and bought.
I can’t express how much it annoys me when people use ‘brought’ instead of ‘bought’. It is very simple, something you learn in primary school. Why do some adults have such difficulty with it and why does nobody correct them. I am from Europe and now I live in New Zealand and I never came across this before I came to NZ. Maybe there needs to be a national education programme to fix the problem.
It’s great to hear from you Ray, and very interesting to think the same issue doesn’t occur in Europe. I like the national campaign idea but I suspect we’d be in the minority there!
don’t forget ‘brung’. It is commonly used in place of brought.
I try very hard to forget ‘brung’! It sounds horrible and is just wrong…
I will bring it tomorrow. I brought it yesterday.
This common error is my pet hate and drives me mad. I’ve heard TV newsreaders, politicians and many, many more mispronounce it. So annoying.
‘brung’ makes me cringe but not as much as ‘driv’ as a past tense of drive. ‘Squoze’ as opposed to squeezed also kills me.
Alex, I’m pleased to say that I haven’t come acorss ‘squoze’ as that would kill me, too!
I also can’t stand it when someone says, “off of” in a sentence one after the other. “I took my shoe off of my foot”. But yes the “bought/brought” problem is the most annoying of all! I grew up in small country town and when i finished school i moved to the city, people often joke about how bogan my education must be, on the contrary, i have found when it comes to literacy my education is far more advanced then a lot of people i have come across where i live now!
Hi Adword, and thanks for joining in
I don’t like generalisations that x group is well educated (or whatever) and y group isn’t – there are great and ordinary urban schools, plus great and ordinary rural schools – so I’m glad you are able to show your country background doesn’t stop you spelling correctly!
“Off of” is somewhat redundant and annoying – glad to say I don’t hear it often except amongst kids (and they’re easier to correct!)
A pet hate of mine is reading through a post and they haven’t used capital ‘I’. Totally unforgivable and should be corrected through the use of capital punishment.
I’m not sure capital punishment is the right response, Eh, but I do understand your frustration! I can overlook one “i” error as a typo but many in a row just yells lazy to me.
Hope you are finding my blog of value and that you comment in other posts, too – it’s always good to hear form others who notice bad grammar!
was just tryin ta get sumfin off my chest but this site too geeky for me haha iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii gosh how pathetic
thanks this comment help me in finding the difference btwn brought and bought.
Thanks
Happy to help Alfie.
Have to say this error drives me up a wall.
hi Ames,
It seems so simple doesn’t it? I hope you don’t come across the wrong brought/bought use very often!
Another one that gets me is people who say libary instead of library. Initially, I thought it was a literacy issue, but I have heard professionals say it as well. In fact, I heard a “Libarian” use the word once. EEEEEEEEK…..like fingernails on a blackboard!
“Libarian” is a scary thought, Fithart! I haven’t noticed that one very much, but I understand the pain it causes as I feel it for “somethink” and “write me”!
My fiance is kiwi and i have noticed when around his family they all use the word brought for to buy something, this is the reason i visisted this website to prove i speak proper england haha have a nice new year everyone and happy hogmanay to my fellow scots
That’s an interesting cultural difference, Lisa. I guess it’s harder to correct an entire nation if they all do it, but bought really is the past tense of buy…
Happy New Year to you, too!
Misusing bought and brought is also my pet hate. So is the incorrect usage of me, myself and I. So many Australians say, “just between you and I” when it is “between you and me”. Or a funnier one is, “myself and my husband went shopping”.
I was a secretary for over 30 years. One of the worst men I ever worked for, would compose his letters full of grammatical errors. I would type the letters with the correct spelling and grammar and return them to him for signature. He would then insist that I was wrong and would make me re-type the letters, complete with errors. I could not do that and resigned soon after. He was a pig-headed egomaniac. (Short too).
“Myself and my husband” just sounds so wrong!
Leading on from that is the misuse of me and my – “here is me bag” makes me cringe and see red!
Thanks for your comment Spelling Queen. I understand your frustration – I have clients who still argue with me about grammar even when they pay me to help with grammar “because I’m no good at it”!
Thanks Tashword. I quit office work forever for the exact same reason! Arguments from the very people who employed me for my skills. Unfortunately in this country, many people do not value or treasure good skills. It is called ‘dumbing down’ and sadly, it thrives here (Australia).
It’s sad that skills aren’t always recognised, and I find writing skills are often undervalued as ‘everyone can write’ so it doesn’t appear so specialised.
Grammar and spelling are also seen as boring, but surely boring doesn’t equal unimportant?
Having said that, I have also dealt with many people who do value my skills and are relieved that I make their message clear and concise with little effort on their part!
Spelling queen of the galaxy – I totally agree with you and am currently working for someone who ‘dumbs me down’ for daring to comment on/and or correct poor spelling, grammar and document formatting, even though it is part of my position description!!! I work in government role where adherence to particular templates and formatting styles is essential but I’m told “that’s grade one stuff” and “don’t worry about it”. I’m made to feel inferior or silly when I comment on spelling mistakes. It’s a shame as, with previous bosses, my skills in this area were very much appreciated. I believe the problem in Australia (possibly just Qld??) became worse many years ago when primary school children learning to spell were encouraged to do so phonetically. The thinking at the time was that correcting spelling errors upset the children. damaged their self esteem and the ability to express themselves on paper. Apparently as long as little Johnny knew what he had written, it didn’t matter how it was spelt. All well and good, but it created a generation of people who haven’t got a clue or even care. A couple of my pet hates, apart from ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ is the use of ‘everyday’ instead of ‘every day’ and ‘alot’ instead of ‘a lot’. What is with this running together of words to make them into one? The incorrect use of apostrophes drives me insane too! Did some people completely skip that year of primary school when this was taught, or isn’t it taught anymore? Why do so many people think that if a word has an ‘s’ at the end, it must also have an apostrophe? I could go on and on, but I think you can see where I’m coming from. It’s good to know there are other people out there who are frustrated as I am about this issue.
Hi Petal – sorry to hear your boss doesn’t appreciate care in documents and the like. I think it must be doubly frustrating when it is your job and she (he?) makes you silly for pointing it out!
In Victoria, we did have the phonetic spelling mentality in schools for a while too but now they teach and correct spelling again. They are just more diplomatic about it (e.g. if little Johnny makes 20 mistakes in a 50 word piece, they just correct 5 or so and encourage self-correction). Self-esteem is very important but I don’t think ignoring their mistakes and misbehaviours is the way to ensure good self-esteem.
I have written about apostrophes, too. It amazes me that some people who generally know the writing basics still don’t get how to use them.
Ha! Just noticed some errors of my own in previous comment… Sorry!
We’re all human Petal! And I think the difference is knowing that it matters and trying to avoid spelling and related errors…
Hi Tashword – self esteem is extremely important. I hope I didn’t give the opposite impression. I understand too, that kids these days seem to have a much larger curriculum than in my time, however, surely the written word is still part of our communication. Imagine if every book, newspaper or magazine article you read (or tried to read) was misspelt, with poor grammar! Surely that would ruin the enjoyment of the exercise. On that note, have you also noticed how many forms of written communication these days do contain errors? Websites, in particular. Some of those are just shocking. If I could work in a field where I wielded a red pen fixing errors all day long, I’ll have found my dream job.
Hi Tashword.I am glad to see that correct grammar has not completely disappeared in this fast paced world of emails and texts. Texted is another word that annoys the hell out of me and while I worked for an auction house the number of people that bidded on an item.
While spelling and grammar was never my forte while at school I still try my best to get it right, as I constantly cast a critical eye over letters I receive for spelling, grammar and formatting. My pet hates include ‘Americanization’ of spelling with the use of ‘z’ instead of ‘s’ and spelling of words such as neighbor instead of neighbour etc. and constantly having to correct spell checker for these words.
HI Sassycat – it’s always nice to hear from someone who undertsands it is important to aim for good grammar and spelling
Spell checkers defaulting to Americanised spelling annoy me – changing the default just doesn’t stay set anymore unfortunately.
In speech it isn’t always clear whether someone says brought or bought, but I really hate seeing them written in the wrond context so here are definitions to help people get them right…
Can you do one on the difference between wrong and wrond??
Although joking aside, I do appreciate the article.
Glad you appreciated it Ben – and you passed the test to see if people were reading it thoroughly.
Seriously, I did miss that typo so apologies for any confusion and thanks for letting me know Ben – it has now been fixed!
You spelt wrond,wrong!
Thanks Alan – I think much, much faster than I can type and apparently didn’t take my own advice on proof reading this post properly. My apologies!
We are raising a generation of individuals that only text. Spelling correctly will never be a part of their vocabulary.
That’s a sad thought, and unfortunately has a fair amount of truth in it. I just keep plugging away where I can as I believe communication is much easier when we all use the same language (including the written and grammatical conventions)
I currently live in New Zealand and people here confuse bought and brought as well! So annoying. And when I see they get it wrong on NEWS ARTICLES WRITTEN BY REPORTERS I get even more annoyed. Haha.
Other things I get annoyed is when they say “writ” instead of “wrote” AA past-tense of “write”. LOL
Hi Laser, I hear your pain over ‘writ’, too!
It is easier to ignore errors like this when they aren’t from professionals who should know better – I particularly don’t like ‘expert’s getting the basics wrong as it is teaching others the wrong thing to do, too
Another thing I battle with is the use of the words “woman” and “women”. Again I have only experienced this in NZ. It seems that the word “woman” is singular and plural in NZ. I have read that this is just the way “women” is pronounced in NZ so it sounds very like “woman” but I don’t believe that because I have heard plenty of others pronounce it correctly.
I have never come across the one Ray – well unless you count young children and they are more likely to say ‘womans’ anyway!
Maybe it is just those with a stronger New Zealand accent that come across as the same word?
Hi tashword,
I’d just like to say to everyone on this website who is banging on about how we’re ‘raising a generation of individuals who only text’ and ‘spelling correctly will never be a part of their vocabulary’, I’m an 18 year old girl from England and I can tell you all now that many of my friends and I don’t write in text language, in primary school we were always corrected on our spelling/punctuation/grammar and most of my year in secondary school passed our English GCSEs with top marks (bearing in mind that marks were deducted if our spelling/punctuation/grammar was incorrect). I am sick and tired of seeing and hearing people having a go at my generation. We are not all complete idiots in hoods with mobile phones permanently attached to our hands and text language inscribed in our brains.
Sorry for the rant, I had to say something. Brilliant website though!
Hi Vickie, and thanks for leaving your comments
I don’t like generalisations either so I understand you getting frustrated by comments about ‘young people can’t spell’. In all generations, many people do know and use correct written English but there are some who don’t and some who don’t care and are happy to take an easier option (such as SMS short cuts).
In Australia (and presumably other places), the education system has moved between teaching philosophies including a phase where phonetic spelling was acceptable and the ideas were given more weight than spelling and grammar. Kids are now taught spelling and grammar but perhaps not to the same level as some older generations. I think people criticising younger generations’ knowledge of written English is more about what they’ve been taught than of the students themselves.
Have a happy new year and good luck with life beyond your GCSEs
This is a pet hate of mine too.
) to see if others were equally bothered by it.
In fact I couldn’t take it anymore and Googled (is that verb allowed?
I am Scottish living in Aberdeen and use mainly UK forums. I’ve noticed English people often mix brought and bought when posting in forums but us Scots with our rounded ‘R’s (to the best of my knowledge) do not make this mistake. I am a musician and hang out mainly in music fora and had thought that many offenders were just being “street” by saying it wrongly (they certainly don’t seem as uneducated as their grasp of this simple concept indicates) but it would seem that this phenomenon is more wide spread…. like to the other side of the world.
I am all for our language evolving over time and I love dialects (especially since where I’m from the local dialects are so far removed from English it’s funny) but this brought/bought thing is simply wrong. It is not our rich language evolving, it is being dumbed down.
I am utterly stunned when I read here that some news readers are allowed to get away with it.
Regarding Vickie’s post above : I too hardly use “text speak” while texting. I did used to try and cram as much info into one text as possible when they first came out to save money but nowadays with so many free texts included in our modern tariffs, I never ever run over, leaving me free to send 5 perfectly spelt (spelled ??) and punctuated page texts at a time if I wanted.
Btw I am dyslexic and put great effort into posting my thoughts correctly. Maybe that’s why people with correctly wired brains misusing simple words annoys me so.
Thank you for such a great comment, ou7shined
It obviously took you time and effort (even aside from being dyslexic) so I appreciate it.
I am finding it fascinating to hear that some countries or regions get brought/bought wrong but others don’t. And I completely agree that language evolving is great but there is so much dumbing down later which is frightening and somewhat offensive to me.
Ok while we at it, what about Good & well?
She did good, she did well.
I notice on tv the Americans say, you did good. Here in Oz we usually say well.
I noticed my daughter more and more taking on Americanisms.
Hi Paul. Some of the Americanisms really annoy me, too – especially the grammatically incorrect ‘write me’ (instead of ‘write to me’).
Unfortunately, with so many of our TV shows being made in the USA, we are exposed to a lot of American terminology and ways of speaking so our cultures are becoming less distinct.