# beber / tomar



## Bilingüe

What's the difference between BEBER and TOMAR?

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

Moderator's note: several threads have been merged to create this one.


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## Jade

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


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## Bilingüe

like I have a glass or water???????

I don't get it it!


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## BasedowLives

Bilingüe said:
			
		

> What's the difference between BEBER and TOMAR?


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?


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## GenJen54

You might consider taking a look at this thread.  It looks as if in many countries, it does not make a difference.


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## Jade

Bilingüe said:
			
		

> like I have a glass or water???????


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


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## daviesri

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".


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## Bilingüe

GenSen: I am very sorry!


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## duder

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_.


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## Jade

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.


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## irisheyes0583

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!


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## Jade

That's it Irisheyes - just forgot to mention that tomar is more common when having alcoholic drinks.


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## Bilingüe

Sorry but after all your contributions I'm still confused or what it's worse:
 "more confused than ever"


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## crispy

Jade said:
			
		

> That's it Irisheyes - just forgot to mention that tomar is more common when having alcoholic drinks.


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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## tango845

either tomar or beber is perfectly fine!  same same.


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## irisheyes0583

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?


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## Bilingüe

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.


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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## maggie_mae

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


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## SEXTO SENTIDO

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) .


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## Zeli

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


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## ricardo6

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.


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## Zeli

Muchas gracias, ricardo.


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## Fantasmagórico

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.


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## De Bezetene

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.


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## Frixuelo

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.


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## Zeli

Gracias a todos


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## pablobeltran

Beber: " You can beber a liquid. water, alcoholics drinks etc..
Tomar: This verb is more general, you can 


take
drink
have
take up
catch
take on
etc....


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## Kleuna

¿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.


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## Ferrol

Por aquí se usan indistintamente en ambos casos


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## donbeto

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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## iribela

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.


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## Snipe

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.


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## hubert145

*¿*Alguno de ustedes diría "me bebí un helado" o "bebí una Coca Cola"?


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## iribela

hubert145 said:


> Alguno de ustedes diría "me bebí un helado" o "bebí una Coca Cola"?


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.)


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## Ferrol

hubert145 said:


> Alguno de ustedes diría "me bebí un helado" o "bebí una Coca Cola"?


Me tomé un helado , pero si diríamos por aquí me bebí/tomé una cocacola


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## Cenzontle

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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## roxcyn

hubert145 said:


> Alguno de ustedes diría "me bebí un helado" o "bebí una Coca Cola"?


Sí, beberse de un trago.



> *gulp [sth] down* _vtr + adv_(food, drink: swallow quickly) (_bebida_)beber de un trago, beberse de un trago _loc verb_(_comida, coloquial_)tragarse _v prnl_


El diccionario WR: gulp down - English-Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com


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## divina

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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