Imply or Infer?

Imply

If a speaker or writer implies something, she is suggesting it in an indirect way rather than making an clear, direct statement. As a reader or listener, you are left to draw your own conclusions from what has been said or hinted.

Here are some sentences from the Oxford English Corpus that use the verb imply correctly:

• I did not mean to imply that there was any truth to these accusations.
• He implied that the book was poorly written.
• The report implies that people are living longer than ever despite their poor eating habits.

Someone who implies a fact, belief, or opinion seeks to convey this information but it is up to the person receiving the information to interpret it.

Infer

When someone infers something, he comes to a conclusion or decides that something is true on the basis of the evidence available. If he is listening to or reading another person’s words, he come to a conclusion about what is meant even though the writer or speaker has not stated this directly.

Infer is often used with the preposition ‘from’.

Here are three sentences showing the correct use of infer:

• I inferred from his evidence that he was not sure how to paraphrase without plagiarizing.
• From this speech, the audience is able to infer that Hamlet will attempt to kill his uncle later in the play.
• The welcome she received would have led an onlooker to infer that Patty had been gone three months instead of three days.

Someone who infers that something is the case receives information and forms her own conclusions.

Same event, different perspectives

Remember that imply and infer can be used to describe the same event, but that they present this event from different points of view. Take a look at the following two sentences:

• He implied that the teacher had been a very good motivator.
  [Presented from the writer’s or speaker’s perspective]
• I inferred from his words that the teacher was a very good motivator.
  [Presented from the listener’s perspective]

In the first sentence, the writer or speaker does not actually claim that the teacher was a good motivator, but his words (or even his tone) have suggested that this is the case.

In the second sentence, whatever was said about the teacher has enabled the listener to deduce that he was in fact a good motivator.