beber / tomar

B

Bilingüe

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Uk
UK English/Spanish
What's the difference between BEBER and TOMAR?

"BEBER UNA COPA DE VINO" or "TOMAR UNA COPA DE VINO"?

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    • The verb tomar can be used to express beber.

    E.g. Me tomo un vaso de agua - I drink a glass of water
    Vamos a tomarnos unas copas! - Let's have a drink!

    I would say that you translate tomar with have in that case.

    Hope this helps.

    Jade
     
    Bilingüe said:
    What's the difference between BEBER and TOMAR?
    Click to expand...
    I think it's more common when you're talking casually among friends if you want to ask "you wanna have a drink?" to use:

    quieres tomar ago?
     
    Bilingüe said:
    like I have a glass or water???????
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    I'll try it again ........ you say in English "I have a beer", don't you? You could say instead "I am drinking/having a beer". In Spanish it is much the same. You can either say "me tomo una copa de vino" o me bebo una copa de vino.

    Jade
     
    I would go with "beber" since it isa direct translation of drink. "Tomar" though it is also a way of saying drink also has many other meanings such as "to take", "get", "to proceed".

    I would guess the close translations to english would be:

    Beber una copa de vino. = Drink a cup of wine.
    Tomar una copa de vino. = Take a cup of wine. or Take a drink from a cup of wine.

    Less chance of confusion with "beber".
     
    At the risk of generalizing (and I welcome any corrections), my experience has been that tomar is more commonly used than beber in the sense of to drink, at least among people from Latin American countries. Because of this I always suspected that beber was used more often in Spain, although I have very little evidence to back that up! However, when speaking about types of drink in general, one would invariably use bebida.
     
    You're totally right Duder. I have friends from Latin America living here in Spain and they do use more tomar than beber, although it is used here as well. You would for example never say "me bebo el jarabe", you say "me tomo el jarabe, medicina etc.
     
    Bilingue, I'm not a native speaker, but when I was in Costa Rica, "tomar" was usually used as a casual word for frinking alcoholic drinks (i.e. "Tomemos unas cervezas"--"Let's drink some beers."). Beber was more common for soda or water.

    Not saying this is a rule though, just my experience! :D
     
    Sorry but after all your contributions I'm still confused or what it's worse:
    "more confused than ever"
     
    Jade said:
    That's it Irisheyes - just forgot to mention that tomar is more common when having alcoholic drinks.
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    Man, I hate to confuse the issue, but I had a professor from Mexico City that told me once that if BEBER is used, the drink is usually alcoholic.
     
    Ok, Bilingue, what I think people are trying to say is that there is no hard & fast rule for whether you should use tomar or beber! It depends on the country, the context, your audience, etc... why don't you try seeing what people in the country/area use, and then choose your words according to what they say? If you're asking for a generic homework assignment, I would think that you could use either tomar or beber.Does that help?
     
    crispy said:
    Man, I hate to confuse the issue, but I had a professor from Mexico City that told me once that if BEBER is used, the drink is usually alcoholic.
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    That's exactly what I thought!

    To irisheyes0583
    I am asking this question not for a homework or assigment, It's because I am a Spanish teacher and one of my students ask me the question that's all!

    Thanks to everyone for their helpful answers. I'm off good night!
     
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    Soy Argentina y opino que tomar es más informal... beber es más formal... pero son sinónimos... yo soy adolescente y se vería raro en mi boca decir beber una copa de vino...
    ya se q se cerro hace mucho el post pero hem quería participar

    jeje besos
     
    Hi Bilingue..
    Usually it's the same in Spanish, but tomar has another meaning then it get become in to take tomar/llevar in Spain to take is coger (to grip) but in Mexico it has a sexual connotation so you must say agarrar (to grip) .
     
    Hola foreros

    Yo sé que tanto tomar como beber se usa, por lo menos en España, por to drink. ¿Existe una diferencia de usaje o significado entre los dos verbos?

    Gracias de antemano
     
    Ninguna diferencia son sinonimas. En Argentina se usa mas tomar por beber. Aqui tomar puede referirse tanto a tomar una copa, un helado, un taxi etc.
     
    Yo creo que “beber” es un poco más formal que “tomar”. La gente normalmente dice: “voy a tomar un vaso de agua”; si alguien dijera: “voy a beber un vaso de agua”, sonaría un poco afectado.
     
    En América Latina beber es muy común en el contexto (generalmente negativo) de las bebidas alcohólicas: Julián bebe demasiado. Sin embargo, tomar también se usa en esos casos.
     
    En España puedes usar ambos perfectamente, si bien es cierto que "tomar" es más informal y se usa más entre personas con cierta confianza. Pero son muy parecidos.
     
    Beber: " You can beber a liquid. water, alcoholics drinks etc..
    Tomar: This verb is more general, you can

    1. take
    2. drink
    3. have
    4. take up
    5. catch
    6. take on
    7. etc....
     
    ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre beber y tomar? Yo siempre he usado "tomar" para bebidas alcoholicas y beber para refrescos, agua, café etc... ¿Hay una distinción definitiva?

    Gracias.
     
    Dudo mucho que haya definiciones exactas por todo el mundo español, es demasiado grande. Que yo sepa, tecnicamente tomar se refiere a alcohol, beber a tanto alcohol como no alcohol.
     
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    Ambas se pueden usar para referirse a cualquier tipo de líquido que una persona ingiera; agua, leche, bebidas alcohólicas, etc.
    El verbo "tomar", en este contexto, se considera más informal, y predomina en la expresión oral.
     
    En mi caso (El Salvador) es al revés que donbeto: beber se refiere a alcohol exclusivamente. Todo dependerá de la región en la que se hable.
     
    hubert145 said:
    Alguno de ustedes diría "me bebí un helado" o "bebí una Coca Cola"?
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    Una Coca, sí. Aunque al hablar lo más común sería "Me tomé una Coca".
    Un helado, no. "Me tomé un helado" o lo podrías comer (una copa de helado con frutas, nueces, etc.)
     
    I went to my favorite authority on usage, the Google Books Ngram Viewer,
    and compared "tomar" and "beber" with "agua", "cerveza", "vino", "tequila", "aguardiente", and "leche".
    The two verbs are remarcably near-equal in frequency,
    with "tomar" somewhat stronger with "leche", and "beber" slightly leading with the distilled spirits.
    P.S.: The hot drinks greatly favor "tomar" (café, té, chocolate).
     
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    Creo que no hay diferencia.
    El verbo "tomar" también puede significar "agarrar" (en los países donde "coger" quiere decir otra cosa), mientras que "beber" siempre significa consumir líquidos.
     
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