Have vs take breakfast

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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby tarvos » Sun Nov 12, 2017 11:34 am

Sylarv wrote:It's not official English to use breakfast as a verb, but people often do this sort of thing informally just for fun.

By the way, the right phraseology is 'to have breakfast', not 'take'. You can also say 'eat breakfast' but that's somewhat clunky. You'd really only say that if you want to stress the eating part.

"Eat your breakfast! You'll be late for school!" - A mother might say to her child who is sitting there not eating their breakfast.


You can break your fast, though.

Taking your breakfast sounds very genteel, old-fashioned and 19th century.

"He broke his fast on the morrow after the eve of seduction, ere the colonel had come to pay him a visit. For he was a timely man, one whose pleasures were not of the flesh, but rather found in the routines of toil and duty. Thus he sat, staring out the window at the lone, falling leaves of autumn outside his window, pondering the late arrival of this morn's rain."
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby tastyonions » Sun Nov 12, 2017 3:12 pm

"Eat breakfast" is utterly typical, at least in all the American English to which I've been exposed.
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby Cainntear » Sun Nov 12, 2017 3:46 pm

Without the context of the original thread, this looks very confusing. Can anyone provide a link...?

Anyway, to me, "take breakfast" only works (as others have said) if you're being served by a butler or are staying in a posh hotel. To me, "taking breakfast" almost refers to breakfast as an event rather than as food, whereas "having" is all about the eating.

It's pretty common (in Western Europe, at least) that while people "eat meat" in a general sense (i.e. "I eat meat" = "I'm not a vegetarian") no one ever eats a steak -- in English we "have a steak" and most other people "take" it. Similarly, "I don't drink coffee" (the rule) but I will have a hot chocolate if I'm in a café.

If you just use "eat" and "drink" to avoid the potential for mixing up "have" (English) with "take" (every other language)... well, you've not gained anything, because you still won't sound very natural, and mixing up "have" and "take" doesn't really make you that hard to understand in the first place.

Better to just learn the right word, surely...?
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby reineke » Sun Nov 12, 2017 4:24 pm

Kids should not drink too much juice and a restaurateur could use the expression "take/taking breakfast" as a form of politeness/professionalism.

Here's a picture of my guests scarfing breakfast/eating breakfast/having breakfast/taking breakfast.
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby whatiftheblog » Sun Nov 12, 2017 11:57 pm

tastyonions wrote:"Eat breakfast" is utterly typical, at least in all the American English to which I've been exposed.


Agreed; I don't see how it's clunky? I regularly use all of the following:

"I haven't had breakfast yet."
"I need to eat breakfast first."
"We're having breakfast."
"I was watching TV while eating breakfast and _____".

Thinking about it some more, I guess it would depend on what type of action I'm trying to emphasize. If the point of what I'm saying is that I haven't yet carved out a portion of my morning to devote to breakfast, I'd use "have". If I'm hungry or, say, I was watching TV and something ridiculous came on and I almost spit out my cereal, I'd use "eat", since the actual process of eating would be the focal point there.

(If it matters, my English is Midwestern US + hints of Joisey + injects of "y'all"/"honeychild"/"legit"/Buzzfeed slang + a veil of "generic standard coastal" with an ever so slight Valley Girl upspeak situation going on in the background.)
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby Serpent » Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:38 am

Cainntear wrote:Without the context of the original thread, this looks very confusing. Can anyone provide a link...?

Words that should exist but don't
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby Adrianslont » Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:12 am

Cainntear wrote:Without the context of the original thread, this looks very confusing. Can anyone provide a link...?

Anyway, to me, "take breakfast" only works (as others have said) if you're being served by a butler or are staying in a posh hotel. To me, "taking breakfast" almost refers to breakfast as an event rather than as food, whereas "having" is all about the eating.

It's pretty common (in Western Europe, at least) that while people "eat meat" in a general sense (i.e. "I eat meat" = "I'm not a vegetarian") no one ever eats a steak -- in English we "have a steak" and most other people "take" it. Similarly, "I don't drink coffee" (the rule) but I will have a hot chocolate if I'm in a café.

If you just use "eat" and "drink" to avoid the potential for mixing up "have" (English) with "take" (every other language)... well, you've not gained anything, because you still won't sound very natural, and mixing up "have" and "take" doesn't really make you that hard to understand in the first place.

Better to just learn the right word, surely...?

I agree with everything you say here....except the bit about nobody eating a steak. Concerned that I am the only person who “eats” a steak I did a search for “eat a steak” using “” and Google gave me 381,000 results. “Have a steak” gave 26,000,000 results so “have” is definitely way more common/natural - I just wanted to clear up any possible misunderstanding that “eat” may always be unnaceotable/wrong. We sure don’t order by saying to the waiter, “I’ll eat a steak” but there are plenty of contexts where it is okay eg. “I eat a steak on all my work out days.”
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby Ani » Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:45 pm

This thread is very confusing!

I eat breakfast and eat steak all the time. If I'm lucky I eat steak for breakfast.
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby Serpent » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:19 pm

@Cainntear hmm I wouldn't say it's so ubiquitous in standard average European. Imo take is more common in the meaning "order" or "choose from the menu" as opposed to just eating.
BTW the English wiktionary doesn't even have eat/drink listed as a meaning of "have".
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Re: Have vs take breakfast

Postby William Camden » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:51 pm

"Take breakfast" has a genteel 19th century feel to it. "Breakfast" is used as a verb by Richard Condon in The Manchurian Candidate although his writing style is odd and he likes to show off his vocabulary. "Have breakfast" is the most common construction.
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