Listen and you'll hear people misuse these words. You don't, of course.
infer and imply
infer and imply
The difference between these two involves whether there is some assuming going on by the reader or listener. “Imply” means that something is inherent in the text or conversation without being explicitly stated. (Example – When the teacher stated that the test results were not good, she implied that few, if any, students got good grades.)
On the other hand, “infer” is when the reader or listener draws some kind of conclusion. (Example – When the teacher told us that we would all have to retake the test, we inferred this was because few, if any, of us got a good grade on it.)
1 comment:
You are a real master of distinctions. This is really amazing stuff you have on your blog.
Tom Bailey
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