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You take and...

Posted by Pamela on July 18, 2008 at 00:51

In Reply to: You take and... posted by pamela on July 18, 2008 at 00:50:

: : : : A friend of mine uses the phrase "you take and ..." when describing how to do or make something. I saw it once in a description of how to make moonshine, and heard a preacher use it once. The friend, I think has Missouri in his ancestry and so did the preacher when I asked. Has anyone heard this phrase? I heard a cookshow hostess say "you're gonna" in describing the concoction of a dish and I thought "that's just like 'you take and ...'"

: : : In 18th-century cookery books one of the standard ways of beginning a recipe is "Take...", as in "Take a Breast of Veal, cut it into pieces...", "Take of Calves-Feet one Pound minced very fine...", "Take your Pigeons, season them..." and so on. "You take" is just a more colloquial version of that opening, so I suspect people have been using it consistently in English for a very long time. (VSD)

: : I've heard it in my native state -- West Virginia

: I agree - in Australia I've heard "you take ...", and so much so that it doesn't strike me as odd-sounding at all - it's just the direct address form of "Take a ..." So, if I was writing a recipe I'd say:

: " Take a mixing bowl and beat the sugar and the butter... Take the eggs in a separate bowl and beat them ..." But if I was explaining it to someone I might say: "You take a mixing bowl ... You take the eggs". Pamela

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