Does the Misuse of Infer and Imply Bug You?

[Quackers]

I assumed he meant your head

Huh, I must look a bit silly now...

disregardless of misproper usage of various words, I don't think it's anything to get bothered about

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I implied that the reason you don't have a metal rod up your ass may be due to that space currently being occupied. You've inferred I meant occupied by a penis when in actual fact I could have meant anything from a thermometer to coke stash to limited edition GI Joe doll with the Kung Fu grip.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

disregardless of misproper usage of various words, I don't think it's anything to get bothered about

Are you inferring you don't care?

@rugbyLEAGUEfan
GI JOE IS NOT A DOLL

 

[Kennigit]

really people should just use extrapolate and interpolate more instead of infer and imply.

"are you extrapolating from my behaviour that I'm dumb?" or [after telling a story] "You interpolating I was stupid between point X of the story and point Y of the story?" instead of "you implying I stupid yo?"

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

@rugbyLEAGUEfan
GI JOE IS NOT A DOLL

that's the least of his worries.


Link to video.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

lmao that was great

 

[Traitorfish]

Is that a thing, mixing up "infer" and "imply"? Can't say I've ever noticed it.

 

[Zack]

I don't think "What an adult man puts up his arse" is a too far a leap from that dude
What are you suggesting?

A suppository?

 

[TomYo689]

I had inferred this was not necessarily about mixing the two but just both of them seperately

 

[LucyDuke]

Nowhere near as much as lay and lie.

 

[Gori the Grey]

In the video clip provided, Eddie Murphy says "from whence."

 

[nerdfighter13]

It annoys me whenever I notice it.

 

[Sarxis]

The implications of this inference are extraordinary! Care to calcify? Not necessarily solutionable, perhaps.

 

[nc-1701]

Hmmm never really thought about it, also to me I usually use "imply" as a logical/mathematical operator i.e a implies b if whenever a is true it follows that b is true. Which is clearly not how it is being used in this thread. Generally I would describe the mayor raising taxes example as some kind of "implicit statement" I'm not sure that's quite right, but it feels better than saying "implies".

 

[hobbsyoyo]

For a second I thought Crezth was back.

 

[Quintillus]

I have never really noticed anyone make this mistake before, but now I probably will. Thanks a lot.

This. I voted "No", but thinking about it, I'm not sure I've ever actually heard anyone make this mistake. Maybe I just didn't notice it?

 

[Gamemaster77]

enough said

Link to video.

 

[caketastydelish]

No. I hate grammar nazis and grammar nazi threads.

I hate nazis in general.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How's this for a trainwreck of a sentence? "I suggest we continue to process the [certificate that we issue] as usual and amend any alterations necessary as and when we have clarity."

(Note that the certificate is something that we issue, not something that we process.)

Translation: "Let's keep doing what we normally do and change anything that needs changing as soon as we know what we're doing."

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It is a bit annoying.

I generally don't care at all about mere non-adherence to orthographical conventions (commonly called misspelling or improper use of punctuation or capitalization), but when it significantly changes the meaning of a statement then it becomes as issue. Using imply instead of infer or vice versa definitely changes the meaning.



I don't actually recall ever hearing, seeing, or imagining that someone would make such an obvious mistake until after I heard it mentioned in "Weird Al" Yankovic's song Close But No Cigar. (It is the singer's reason for dumping the first otherwise perfect girl, as mentioned 35 seconds into this video.)


Link to video.

I've noticed it quite a bit since then, although I haven't been around anyone who makes this mistake recently.