3

Mortgage: a legal agreement by which a bank or similar organization lends you money to buy a house, etc., and you pay the money back over a particular number of years; the sum of money that you borrow

And, mortgage is an agreement and we say "A has an agreement with B".

So, I think "We took out a 20-year mortgage with a bank" seems to make more sense than "We took out a 20-year mortgage from a bank"

However, we often say "someone takes something from someone else". When we see "take" we often think about "from".

"from a bank" sounds like 1 direction while "with a bank" sounds like there is a cooperation between the two.

Is it correct to say "We took out a 20-year mortgage with a bank" or "We took out a 20-year mortgage from a bank"?

Or if we can not use "with" or "from", what are other prepositions we can use?

Improve this question
2
  • 3
    "A mortgage is a loan taken out with a bank or building society to buy a house or other property." - UK Citizens Advice website.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 13, 2022 at 13:25
  • Probably in most cases you would not need to mention the bank. If you are taking out a mortgage, it must be with/from the bank, or a bank-like organisation (building society, credit union etc)
    – James K
    Commented Sep 14, 2022 at 5:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

The phrasal verb 'take out' meaning 'arrange for a financial or other service' can be followed by either of the prepositions 'with' or 'from'.

We might tend to use 'from' if we think of the arrangement as one-way (e.g. the bank provides the loan to the borrower) or 'with' if we think of it as two-way. In fact most such arrangements are two-way, because the bank agrees to lend you money on condition that you pay it back, either all at once at a later date, or in instalments. Likewise, if you take out an insurance policy, the insurance provider agrees to provide you with a service (the insurance cover) and you agree to pay a sum of money called a 'premium', again either all at once or in stages.

Improve this answer
-1

The "out" in "take out" suggests emphasis on a one-way direction, so "from" would be more appropriate and perhaps more idiomatic, though "with" is also understandable and perhaps even acceptable, at least to some.

If the emphasis is on the lender, an alternative would be: "We took out a mortgage originating at a (or such and such) bank". Shifting the emphasis to where the transaction took place, you could also say "We took out a mortgage at a bank";

If you want to acknowledge or emphasize the bidirectional nature of the transaction, you could use an alternative verb, e.g. "arrange ... with".

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .