I have to admit that this is tricky, and these two words are very commonly used interchangeably. So what is the difference? In order to provide a good answer to these, I have to dig into multiple dictionaries.
Both words are verbs. Let's start with Infer. Infer usually refers to deducing based on evidence, facts or what was seen, e.g. visible, or an action of suggesting or implying. He infers that the failure of the team is partly due to my incompetency.
Conclude refers to reaching a decision or opinion, with evidence and facts. This decision or opinion is usually final, which means it doesn't make sense for a person to conclude an issue now and and conclude again on the same issue an hour later, unless there is a major decrepancies on the evidence or facts. A good example would be the usage in the final paragraph of a report where you will draw the conclusion. The project team has concluded, after assessing the risks, that the disaster will not affect the project schedule.
As much as I wanted to keep it short and sweet, so that readers can obtain the information on the correct and appropriate usage of words easily, I would like to make it interesting also. This is to inculcate good habits to learn English. You might notice that some post are short, while some post like this for example, are longer. I hope you will visit this blog on and off. If you have words that are often misused for the same meaning, do feel free to let me know. I will try to post the answer.
Monday, 26 September 2011
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