Is it imply or infer?

Many people readily mix up these terms.

Both of these are verbs (doing words), but mean different things. Here’s what they mean.

Imply

This means to ‘hint at’ or ‘suggest’.

So, someone might ‘imply’ that your grammar is poor (by gently pointing out mistakes, but not actually saying it!).

Infer

This means to ‘deduce’ or ‘draw a conclusion from what was said’.

If someone sends your document back with corrections, you might ‘infer’ (or conclude) from that that your English could be improved.