For many English learners these two verbs are a little bit confusing. The confusion occurs mainly because both: lend and borrow have almost the same meaning.
First of all, LEND means to give something to someone for a short time, expecting you'll get it back.
"I lend her my book yesterday."
LEND is an irregular verb, which means it does not take the “–ed” ending. The verb forms are:
- "lend" present tense
- "lent" simple past
- "lent" past participle
BORROW means to get something from someone, intending to give it back in the end.
" Can I borrow your pen for a minute, please?
BORROW is a regular verb that adds “–ed” to form past tense and past participle verbs. The verb forms are:
- "borrow" present tense
- "borrowed" simple past and past participle
So basicaly lend shows something is temporarily given to another person. Meanwhile borrow shows that something is temporarily taken from another person.
LEND and BORROW are both frequently used incorrectly. Although similar in meaning they can't be interchangeable. When in doubt of which to use, try substituting the word “give” for lend and “take” for borrow. By doing this, the correct word is clear. Consider the following examples:
Typical mistakes:
" Can I borrow your dictionary?" instead of " Can I lend your dictionary"
"Could you give me some sugar for my tea?" instead of " Could you take me some sugar for my tea?"
In the last example you can see clearly that by substituting the words “give” and “take,” you can simply understand better the meaning of the sentence.