Infer and imply: there’s a difference
May 29th, 2008 by Bill
Two of the most commonly misused words are infer and imply. It drives me crazy but, since I make a lot of mistakes myself, I can’t get too steamed without having everything turn back on me. But …
Here’s an example of what I mean, from today’s Globe and Mail:
The Prime Minister’s Office was forced into a diplomatic backtrack Thursday after mistakenly inferring that a meeting between Stephen Harper and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resulted in a decision to ease combat restrictions on Italy’s forces in Afghanistan.
As I think of it, it is possible this is correct. I’m not sure if they mean, based on the content of the meeting, the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) came to that conclusion or, as I initially took it, the PMO communicated, though implication, the misinformation. I took it to mean the latter because communicating information (to reporters) is one of the primary things the PMO does.
But the story isn’t my point. I simply wanted to say that imply is something you provide, or put out there, and inferкомпютри is what you take from something. I like the way this Grammar Tips page puts it:
The best way to remember the difference between these two words is to think in terms of the model used by communications theorists. Communication consists of a message, a sender, and a receiver. The sender can imply, but the receiver can only infer.
Am I inferring that people often get this wrong? No. But if I were, I wouldn’t. I would be implying it. But I’m not doing that, either.
I’m sayin’ it straight out.
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