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Do you "go for" one, "take" one, "have" one, "do" one, or what? Similarly for a shower, a nap, a rest, a look, and so on. How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

araceli wrote:Do you "go for" one, "take" one, "have" one, "do" one, or what? Similarly for a shower, a nap, a rest, a look, and so on. How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

I can either go for or take a walk. I only take most of the others, though I would not take a rest; I would just rest.

I only go for/on walks/runs/hikes. I have showers, naps, rests, breaks and looks, but I can also take showers, breaks and looks.

I would "go for" a walk and "have" a rest (though I would "take" a break). I would "take" all the others. (Though it seems I prefer "have" with "shower" in the perfect, e.g. "I took a shower today because I hadn't had one in two days.")

"Nap" could be used with "have" if a child were involved, e.g. "Has the baby had his nap yet?" I guess it's a matter of agency/volition: Children often don't "take" naps of their own accord but have to be "put down" or "taken up" for them. Or maybe it's habitus/definiteness? "Have you had your nap?" sounds like a reasonable thing to ask an elderly person who naps daily. My partner "has" a golden siesta.

I would "take a piss" but "go pee". I "take" shits/dumps/craps/etc. I "have" a wank.

I "have" a drink. "Taking" one sounds to me like a literal calque on Spanish tomar or French prendre. I don't smoke, but if I did I would "have" a smoke/cigarette/fag/toke/drag/etc.

I "have" meals. "Taking" them sounds like English aristo lingo of a previous generation. "I'll take tea in music room, MIss Hanks."

I go for or take a walk, with a preference for going for. I don't do any of these things for resting. I just rest. I don't take naps. I could have or take a look pretty well interchangeably. I take a shower. I just did, in fact.

I would also have a drink, though taking a drink is also acceptable to mean one sip.

I also have breakfast, lunch, and supper/dinner.

"Take" is acceptable to me with "walk", "hike", etc. in the imperative. "Take a hike!" is the equivalent of "Get lost!" IMD. So is "Why don't you take a hike?" "Why don't you go on a hike?", on the other hand, is a polite suggestion.

I don't use any of those, I just say the verb and something like "awhile" as in like "I will walk for a while"

How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

Do you mean light verbs with the same meanings?, or light verbs in general?

Anyways, Japanese makes light verbs with 'suru' ('to do'). For example:
- benkyou suru == to study
- undou suru == to exercise
- kekkon suru == to get married

Ahzoh wrote:I don't use any of those, I just say the verb and something like "awhile" as in like "I will walk for a while"

"We break for 15 minutes between first and second lesson."

You sure you'd never ever use them as nouns?

Neon Fox wrote:

araceli wrote:Do you "go for" one, "take" one, "have" one, "do" one, or what? Similarly for a shower, a nap, a rest, a look, and so on. How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

I can either go for or take a walk. I only take most of the others, though I would not take a rest; I would just rest.

Same here, though I can imagine contexts in which I might use the phrase "take a rest" though I'd rarely use "take a look" except in the imperative.

"Let's go for a walk" and "I'm gonna take a walk" is probably what I'd say. It'd switch between take/go.

EDIT: I'd use "take" for the rest of the examples, with "have" alternatively.

Terra wrote:

How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

Do you mean light verbs with the same meanings?, or light verbs in general?

Anyways, Japanese makes light verbs with 'suru' ('to do'). For example:
- benkyou suru == to study
- undou suru == to exercise
- kekkon suru == to get married

Japanese uses suru for some of these.

a walk:
散歩(を)する、散歩に行く
sanpo (o) suru, sanpo ni iku
walk (ACC) do / walk to go

a shower:
シャワー(を)する、シャワーを浴びる、(お)風呂(に)入る
shawā (o) suru, shawā o abiru, (o)-furo (ni) hairu
shower (ACC) do / shower ACC bathe.in / (HON)-bath (to) enter
(in Japanese you can say "have a bath" even when it's just a shower)

a nap:
(お)昼ね(を)する
(o)hirune (o) suru
(HON)-nap (ACC) do

a rest
休む, 休憩(を)する
yasumu, kyūkei (o) suru
rest / rest (ACC) do

a look
見てみる
mite miru
see-CONJ see
(this is a weird one, because the verb miru "look; see" can be used with other verbs with a meaning like "try" or "see if", so in this case it means something like "try looking", i.e. "take a look (to see if I can find out whatever it is I'm trying to find out)". Its auxiliary usage here is indicated by being written in hiragana rather than kanji)

So the conclusion is that most of these can indeed take suru "do", just as you suggested.

KathAveara wrote:

Ahzoh wrote:I don't use any of those, I just say the verb and something like "awhile" as in like "I will walk for a while"

"We break for 15 minutes between first and second lesson."

You sure you'd never ever use them as nouns?

Never in my life have I used them as nouns.

go for a walk
take a shower (agree with linguoboy about 'had' but for me it varies, had/taken, either works)
take a nap
take a break (I wouldn't say 'rest')
take a look ('have a look' is also idiomatic but not sure in which circumstances / what the difference is)

take a piss
take a dump
get/have a drink
get/have/eat dinner

ps catheter aviary 'break' is a verb in "we break for 15 minutes", not a noun

I'm from the north of England and my usages are like most of yours: I go for a walk but have most of the others. I'd rather have a bath than a shower though. I suspect walk takes a different idiom because its typically of a longer duration than the rest.

Ahzoh wrote:Never in my life have I used them as nouns.

I call shenanigans on that.

Walk a walk, take a bath and just go and rest and "go and place me"(go to sleep in Swedish)

Vardelm wrote:

Ahzoh wrote:Never in my life have I used them as nouns.

I call shenanigans on that.

You can call it what you like, but that doesn't change anything.

German equivalents:

go for a walk - einen Spaziergang machen ("make a walk") or spazieren gehen ("go to walk")
take a shower - simple verb duschen "to shower". But "take a bath" can be both translated by the simple verb baden "bathe" or ein Bad nehmen "take a bath"
take a nap - ein Nickerchen halten "hold a nap"
take a break - eine Pause machen "make a break"
take a look - simple verb ansehen / anschauen "look at"

take a piss - simple verb pinkeln or pinkeln gehen "go to piss"
get/have a drink - ein X trinken "to drink X" (with X = name of drink)
get/have/eat dinner - X essen "eat X" (with X = name of the meal); there are also verbs frühstücken "to have breakfast (= Frühstück)", (zu) Mittag essen "to have lunch (= Mittagessen)", Tee / Kaffe trinken "to have (afternoon) tea / coffee" - even if it's literally "to drink tea / coffee", it also implies having cake or biscuits etc. -; (zu) Abend essen "to have dinner / supper (= Abendessen)"

On the whole, it seems to me that English has a somewhat higher procilivity for using "verb + noun" than German for such everyday activities. And nehmen "take" seems to b used much more rarely in German than its equivalent in German; in German, the default verb for such constructions is machen "to make / to do".

Usually 'have' for these things rather than 'take', but 'take' is acceptable - I think I use it more in time-bounded situations? I would normally have a shower, but I might say "I'm just taking a shower and then I'll be ready". I normally have, or even go for, a nap, but I might say "I think I'll take a nap before tea". But I don't know if that's accurate.

Swedish: In Finnish we just use mennä (go to) for all of these.

Neon Fox wrote:

araceli wrote:Do you "go for" one, "take" one, "have" one, "do" one, or what? Similarly for a shower, a nap, a rest, a look, and so on. How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

I can either go for or take a walk. I only take most of the others, though I would not take a rest; I would just rest.

This is the same for me, except I do "take" a rest, and additionally I can "get" a look [at something]. Generic verbs like "enjoy" and "endure" work with all of them, and all are verbs in their own right: "I walk", "I shower", "I nap", etc.. My dialect is American English, specifically from North East Pennsylvania.

I go for a walk, a run, or a hike.
I take a walk, a hike, a look, a shower, a nap, or a rest.
I have a look, or a rest.
I also run, walk, hike, shower, nap, and rest.

araceli wrote:Do you "go for" one, "take" one, "have" one, "do" one, or what? Similarly for a shower, a nap, a rest, a look, and so on. How about languages other than English, if they have a comparable idiom?

walk - go for or take
shower - take
nap - take of have
rest - have
look - take or have

Well let's see...
Greek equivalents:

(1) walks: /Kano volta/ ("kano"= I do 1 sg. Pr. Ind.), /Pao volta/ ("pao"= I walk). Obviously the word 'volta' is a loanword from the neighbors:)

(2) Showers: /kano ntous/ ("kano"= I do 1 sg. Pr. Ind.)

(3) Naps: /perno enan ipnako/ ("perno= I take)

And, drawing from Linguoboy, (4) Cigarettes: /kano tsiγaro/ ("I do a cigarette") or its more general equivalent /kapnizo/ ("I smoke"). But when it comes to other kinds of cigarettes ;-P, the sentence becomes /pino tsiγaro/ ('I drink a cigarette').

Nice to be back:)