Is 拿 only used to take "thing" and not "person"? I recently took a Chinese test on EasyMandarin website. One of the question is the following:


  明天晚上我___你吃饭。


They ask me to pick up a word that is suitable to the blank area, and I picked up 拿.

However, the correct answer was 请. I found it sounds a better term.

However, is 拿 also suitable here? I meant the sentence is "Tomorrow evening I would take you to eat dinner.". 

Is 拿 only used to take a "thing", or can I use it also to take "person"?
I cannot imagine a situation where &quot;拿&quot; would take a human object. Daniel has already explained the etymology of the character, however &quot;拿&quot; not only takes physical objects, but can also be used metaphorically such as in the phrase &quot;拿主意&quot; (to brainstorm), which literally translated means &quot;to grab ideas&quot;.
I'd also like to point out that the main reason &quot;拿&quot; would not fit into that sentence is because it cannot be used in the same way &quot;take&quot; would be used in english. It should only be used in a picking-up-and-holding kind of way.

Example sentences that cannot take (heh) &quot;拿&quot;

I will take the car to work. (you aren't picking up the car)
I will take a break. (can't really pick up a &quot;break&quot;, either)


As a general rule of thumb, anything too big to pick up shouldn't use 拿.

A.N.
To use the word &quot;拿&quot; in that sentence would actually be quite comical. Since &quot;拿&quot; also means &quot;with&quot; as in &quot;to use&quot;, it would actually mean &quot;Tomorrow night I will use you to eat dinner&quot;. In fact, in the above situation, even if the object was not human, you shouldn't use &quot;拿&quot; at all.
Even if you wished to say: &quot;I will take my purse to dinner&quot;, opt for something like &quot;帶&quot;, which means &quot;to bring&quot;. Otherwise people people might misunderstand it as you are literally using your purse to eat your food.