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Keep our language diverse
07 September 2005
People are always getting 'imply' and 'infer' muddled up these days. Does it matter? Well yes, a bit: without the distinction between these two words we can't know who is doing the implying and who is doing the inferring.
You imply by your manner that you are angry with me. I infer from your behaviour that you are not pleased. In short, you imply something from what you say or how you behave. You infer something from what you hear or see. You might almost say that imply means suggest and infer means understand. Consider these two remarks:
'I infer from your beautifully pronounced reference to Der Ring des Nibelungen that you speak German.'
'That is not what I intended to imply - I am simply fond of Wagner.'
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