Question

Choose the sentence that correctly uses the homograph "import" when it means "to bring from the outside."
A. If we import the advertising from our sister club, we can save a lot of money.
B. I don't think Mrs. Syers understood the import of my message.

Answer 1

I think the A one. Maybe someone else knows better than me. I just guess it.

Answer 2

Is Laila Right?

Answer 3

Try out that meaning -- to bring or carry in from the outside -- in each of the sentences. It ought to make perfect sense in one, and none at all in the other.

Here's another way to approach it, to confirm what trying out the meaning tells you. The definition "to bring . . ." indicates an action, right? It's the definition of a verb. Is "import" being used as a verb in A? Is it being used as a verb in B?

(Recognizing a verb is easy. Take the word and try to put different pronouns in front of it. Can you say "I ___, you ___, she___" with the word and have it make sense? If so, it's a verb, or at least, it can be used as a verb. And if you find it that way in a sentence, it's being used as a verb there.)

Answer 4

Layla is correct. In the first sentence by context it would mean that they have brought in their sister club help to save money which makes sense. The second sentence probably would take the word importance better than import.

Answer 5

Don't be so hasty there to swap out a perfectly good word for another that is decidedly not a synonym in this instance. The sense of "import" in that second sentence is "meaning" or "signification." Mrs. Syers understood the significance of what I had to say, in other words, not the importance of what I said. Depending upon the context, "significance" could mean a whole host of things. Bottom line: she got the underlying message.