There's still some lingering mild debate out there in the bowels of the internet on whether imply and infer are synonyms or antonyms, but I think it's safe to say that the antonym camp has the numbers and so, for clarity, allow me to explain to anyone who still doesn't quite get it what the difference is and when you want to use each one.
Simply put:
The speaker implies.
The listener infers.
Arguing that implying and inferring are the same thing and can be used interchangeably is like arguing that pitching and catching is the same thing. There's clearly a relationship there. Someone is implying and someone is inferring but it really helps if you understand the difference. Talking with someone is a lot like playing catch but when relating that conversation to others it helps to know who is pitching and who is catching.
Small thing. But the better we learn to communicate the more persuasive we'll be. And that seems important to me.
It won't climb the charts. But a few people will read it, learn, and soon it will happen less and bother me less.
Umm, well I wouldn't count on that. Grammatical errors seem to have a way of propagating exponentially until, sadly, they become permanent parts of the language. My pet peeve is using "than" and "then" interchangeably, as in "so and so is better then that other so and so." I also find that phonetic spellings of common words irritate me. But they persist, and a few years ago had to force myself to stop being a Grammar Nazi for my own serenity.
But of course the result is that, while I don't point out such errors to people anymore, I do privately judge them. If someone makes too many grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors in a short space, I'm inclined to block them from future communications as I find them too irritating to read.
Perhaps it has something to do with my Myers-Briggs Personality score of INTJ.
I feel your pain.
Yea, I mean yeah or whatever. Lol