[Vocabulary] to call for something

[ChessEnthusiast]

In a book devoted t Phrasal Verbs, I found this sentence:

I left my laptop on your desktop, I will call for it in the evening.

However, a friend of mine, a native-speaker told me that this use is incorrect and the sentence should be written like this:

I will call on you in the evening and take it.

Is the first sentence actually correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Neither one is entirely correct:

- The version in the textbook should have used a semi-colon instead of a comma.
- Whilst your friend's version is grammatically correct, it's really not very natural and uses more words than necessary.
- Neither one specifies which evening is involved.

I would write:

- I left my laptop on your desk; I'll come and get it this evening.

Note that "on your desk" is much more natural than "on your desktop". These days, "desktop" tends to refer to the main screen of a laptop, where you keep lots of icons and shortcuts, or is a shortened form of "desktop computer".

 

[emsr2d2]

It also depends on where the desk is. If the two people work in the same building and the desk is in the office of one of them, it won't make sense to use "I'll call in" if all they're going to do is walk to a different office to get it. Mind you, that assumes that at least one party will be working in the office during the evening. If the desk is in someone's house, then it does make sense to say "I'll call in" or "I'll come round" etc because the owner of the laptop will have to visit someone else's house to get their laptop back.