Wednesday, 6 November 2013

BORROW and MOST

BORROW

This is not exactly pedir prestado. Pedir is to ask for something. You ask someone for something (pides algo prestado), but maybe you won't get it because the other person refuses to lend it to you. You don't borrow things until they're actually in your hands:

        I phoned my friends and asked them for money / asked them to lend me some money, but they
        refused, so I wasn't able to borrow money from them.

When you say can I borrow your rubber? you mean can I take / use you rubber?
When  you borrow books from a library, you don't "pides", you actually take them home with you.

MOST
   
When MOST (it rhymes with POST, the same vowel sound as in NO) means la mayoría de, it is NOT used with THE:
    The most people think that...
    I played games with the most of my friends.
It's easy to remember: all you have to do is use it in the same way that you would use SOME:
    The some people...
    ...with the some of my friends
There are propbably two reasons for this common error: one is the influence of Spanish (LA mayoría de...); the other the similar phrase the most + adjective, but this, of course, is quite different: it's a superlative:
    The most beautiful melody of all.

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