'my take on sth.'

Question

Hello folks,I am from Germany and I am in a struggle with an english text. :-) Could anyone here be so nice and explain the meaning of 'my take on it' to me? I did not find this phrase in my dictionary.Thanks in advance.So long, Julius

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]explain the meaning of 'my take on it' to me?[/nq]
"My interpretation of its meaning"

Mike Nitabach

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello folks, I am from Germany and I am in a struggle with an english text. :-) Could anyone here ... take on it' to me? I did not find this phrase in my dictionary. Thanks in advance. So long, Julius[/nq]
http://www.bartleby.com/61/5/T0020500.html
Check out the definition of "take" as a noun, sense eight.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" (Email Removed) Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello folks, I am from Germany and I am in a struggle with an english text. :-) Could anyone here ... take on it' to me? I did not find this phrase in my dictionary. Thanks in advance. So long, Julius[/nq]
Guten Morgen, Julius,
it's always helpful to provide the context in which an unknown word or phrase appears.
"My take on it" means "was ich darunter verstehe" or "wie ich das so sehe." Does that fit?

Reinhold (Rey) Aman
Santa Rosa, CA 95402, USA

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]it's always helpful to provide the context in which an unknown word or phrase appears.[/nq]
I considered this as too bulky...
[nq:1]"My take on it" means "was ich darunter verstehe" or "wie ich das so sehe." Does that fit?[/nq]
Yep, that's exactly it, so basically the same Michael posted.

Thanks! (Oh, and nice to provide the explanation in German...) bye,
Julius

Usenet · Answer

If the German phrases mean, "What I understand" and "What I see" or "As I see it" then they are almost exact but not quite so.
"My take on it" in English has, IMHO, the slight implication that the speaker is responding to more than one other opinion and is going to say something no one else has thought of. It is more like, "Has anyone considered this possibility?"
Maybe I'm reading to much into a phrase??

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]If the German phrases mean, "What I understand" and "What I see" or "As I see it" then they are ... is going to say something no one else has thought of. It is more like, "Has anyone considered this possibility?"[/nq]
I don't speak idiomatic German, so I don't know the connotations of those German phrases. The English phrase, "my take on it", can have the connotation you describe, but it doesn't have to.

Imagine a business meeting where several attendees have already expressed their opinion about something. When an attendee who has yet to speak rises and says, "My take on it is...", it has exactly the connotation you describe.
But imagine a different situation. A company has just been hit with a huge lawsuit, and the president has informed top management of the suit and called a meeting. Everyone files into the room, and waits for the president to speak. He says, "OK, my take on it is..." Here the phrase does not have the connotation you describe, and is simply used to indicate that what is about to follow is an interpretation of the situation.
These connotations can potentially be distinguished by the stress pattern. In the former context, the stress would most likely be on "my", while in the latter, on "take".

Mike Nitabach

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello folks, I am from Germany and I am in a struggle with an english text. :-) Could anyone here be so nice and explain the meaning of 'my take on it' to me? I did not find this phrase in my dictionary.[/nq]
Others have answered your question. I'd just like to point out that "English" generally has a capital letter. The only senses in which it is sometimes not written with a capital are the following:

From *The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,* 4th ed. at http://www.bartleby.com/61/61/E0146100.html
"English 5. also english a. The spin given to a propelled ball by striking it on one side or releasing it with a sharp twist. b. Bodily movement in an effort to influence the movement of a propelled object; body English."

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

This is really an interesting sense of "take." I cannot help but wonder whether it derives of "take" as a film-making term.

"Take" would begin there as what the camera takes from a scene in an uninterrupted sequence.
When we are used to that, then the camera that does the "taking" might as well be the eye of a character (as portrayed by an actor), so we get the actor's "take" or reaction to what the character sees in the scene (and the comic actor's "double take"). It is very easy to see how a director who is used to each change of point of view being a take would come to refer to the character's point of view as the character's take on a scene.
And from a visible reaction to a scene it is not very far to a mental impression or understanding of an idea or a presentation.

Lars Eighner ~~finger for geek code~~ (Email Removed) http://www.io.com/~eighner/ "The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything." Walter Bagehot

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This is really an interesting sense of "take." I cannot help but wonder whether it derives of "take" as a film-making term.[/nq]
I think this usage is much older, and related directly to sense given in the excerpt from the below:
47. a. With adv. or advb. phr. To understand or apprehend in a specifiedway. Also with person as obj. In quot. a 1300, ?to understand to be meant?: cf. 48b.
a1300 Cursor M. 1379 (***) e fader in cedre ou sal take, A tre of heght, at has na make. 13.. Ibid. 28974 Chastiyng o flex(e)s foure fald to tak In praier, fasting, wand, and wak. c1460 R. ROS La Belle Dame 582 And so must he be take in every place. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion (ad fin.), Leste yet the same kneelyng myghte be thought or taken otherwyse. 1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. viii. §522 So was the law taken in Anno
4. H. 3. 1665 BUNYAN Holy Citie 164, I the rather take it thus,..Because(etc.). 1721 BRADLEY Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat. 155 If we take the Story of it right.
b. With simple compl. To understand as, suppose to be, consider as: = take for, 48; also, to understand to mean: = 48b. Obs.
13.. Cursor M. 28121 (Cott.) And titter wald i lesyng make an man myworde vn-treu to take. c1400 Apol. Loll. 35 o hous of *** her is tane e congregacoun of feiful men. 1538 Treat. Bps. Rome Supremacy i, In times past the Bishop of Constantinople tooke himself highest of all bishops. 1660 MILTON Free Commw. Wks. 1851 V. 421 They took themselves not bound by the Light of Nature or Religion to any former Covnant. 1709 STEELE Tatler No. 1 9, I take my self obliged in Honour to go on.
c. With dependent clause: To suppose, apprehend, assume as a fact, be of opinion (that..). Usually take it.c1380 WYCLIF Wks. (1880) 460 Cristenmen taken ouer at petre was cristis viker, & suyde hym in maner of lif. 1429 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 346/1 So take that the saide Cominaltes been no Cominaltes corporat. 1538 AUDLEY in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 240, I take it that your lordshypp ys at appoynt for me to have it. 1596 SHAKES. Merch. V. I. i. 63, I take it your owne busines calls on you. 1603 Meas. for M. IV. ii. 110 As I take it, it is almost day.

1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. v. §354 It is commonly taken, that if a wife run away from her husband..shee shall loose her dower. 1709 STEELE & ADDISON Tatler No. 93 4 Within this Height I take it, that all the fighting Men of Great Britain are comprehended. 1842 TENNYSON E. Morris 43, I take it, *** made the woman for the man, And for the good and increase of the world. 1885 Law Times LXXX. 118/2 The learned counsel might take it that this court overruled the objection.
d. With inf. To understand, consider, suppose, imagine, assume (to be or to do something).
1548 UDALL Erasm. Par. John 16b, Men toke him to be mine inferiour. 1663BUTLER Hud. I. II. 889 For Men he (the Bear) always took to be His Friends, and Dogs the Enemy. a1677 BARROW Serm. Wks. 1716 III. 72 He that taketh himself to have enough, what doth he need? 1719 DE FOE Crusoe (1840) II. vi. 151, I take that man to be a..penitent. 1878 HUXLEY Physiogr. 63 It may be taken roughly to represent one inch of rain.
e. to take (something) as done: to consider an omission not to have occurred; to take (something) as read: see READ v. 11e.
1893 E. F. BENSON Dodo I. i. 9 You haven't congratulated me. Never mind,we'll take that as done.

Regards, Frank Young
(Email Removed) 703-527-7684 Post Office Box 2793, Kensington, Maryland 20891 "Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate... Nunc cognosco ex parte"

'my take on sth.'

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