traer vs llevar

Hola a todos,

lesson 8.7 explains the difference between traer and llevar and that its use depends on the location of the speaker. In a nutshell it states that traer means “to bring HERE” and llevar means “to take THERE”.

However, in audio lession 5.3 the word traer is used in either case - to mean “can you bring it HERE” (puedes traer una pelota) and “I can take it THERE” (sí, puedo traer una pelota).

Am I missing something? Or is it because both Amy and Mauricio are located at the same place when they talk?

Gracias por tu ayuda

Henrik

In case anyone wanted to see what Henrik is mentioning above.

Amy: Necesito una pelota para el juego de fútbol. ¿Puedes traer una?

Mauricio: Sí, puedo traer una pelota.

and later…

Amy: ¡Qué buena idea! Traigo chocolates.

Mauricio: Listo. Yo traigo una pelota y una camisa de árbitro.

Your “nutshell” looks right to me and I agree the earlier lesson doesn't seem to follow those rules. Since it is a beginner lesson, I wonder if they did it for simplicity sake. Clearly you would be understood if you only used traer, but it would sound strange to a native speaker (if you should have used llevar). 

I look forward to the official answer!

Hola a todos,

No official answer to this and other questions for quite awhile now. ¿Todavía hay un tutor? Espero que sí.

Saludos,

Ricardo

It was sporadic before, but useful responses. I agree, it has been a very long time since we had a response. I am going to submit a message to them and see if they answer.

¡Hola a todos!

Apologies for the late reply! We are indeed still here. :)

Traer “to bring” and llevar “to take” are quite tricky, and it's true that Lesson 5.3 doesn't get into the details because it's designed for beginners and it's just providing a light introduction to traer “to bring.” But, since you have all been through Lesson 8.7 and have become more familiar with these verbs, let's get into this in a little more detail!

As Henrik has summarized, the key with traer “to bring” and llevar “to take” is location - specifically, the location of the speaker. In this lesson, we know that Mauricio and Amy are talking about a party that Amy plans to throw the next day, but the lesson doesn't actually tell us where their conversation is taking place. Since they both use the verb traer “to bring,” we can assume that Mauricio and Amy are both at the location of the party (probably Amy's house) and so they're talking about bringing things to their location - in other words, bringing things HERE. 

I hope that clears this up for you! Do let me know if you still have any questions.

Saludos,

Liss