Difference between ANSWER REPLY and RESPOND Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about three

verbs I’m going to talk about the

difference between answer reply and

respond so let’s get started

okay first let’s take a look at the verb

answer to answer the meaning of the verb

to answer is one to react to a question

so a simple question what time is it

what’s your name how are you those are

simple questions so when we react to

that like 12 o’clock Alicia I’m good

those are all answers and we can say I

answered the question in response so we

can use it in that way but we can also

use it when we’re taking tests tests or

examinations when we include or we

choose an answer as a noun when we

choose something on the test and we mark

that that’s called answering a question

on a test so we use answer for like

verbal questions and written questions

but we also use it for test questions

too so this is good to keep in mind when

you’re answering something you’re

answering some questions or there’s some

some questions some inquiry that you’re

reacting to so there’s something that’s

like a question being posed that’s a

good thing to keep in mind for this verb

also we use answer for these two cases

when we pick up the phone so there’s an

incoming phone call your phone is

ringing when you pick up the phone we

use the verb answer to describe that we

say to answer the phone please answer

your phone we also use it when guests

come to our homes or to our offices or

to other locations when the guest

arrives at the door or at the reception

or there’s some kind of door area where

you need to receive your guests we use

the verb answer to refer to opening the

door and greeting the guests so if

someone knocks on the door to announce

they

have arrived at your home you go to the

door open it we say that’s called

answering the door so please answer the

door our guests are here so to answer

the door is to open the door when guests

arrive to answer your phone is to pick

up the phone when your phone rings so

these are a couple other ways that we

use the verb answer let’s look at some

examples now - all right first one

please answer the questions please

answer the questions we could use this

for a test we could use this in like a

discussion as well please answer the

questions this is a very simple base way

to use a basic way to use answer here

for a test answer all questions within

30 minutes so here’s a command answer

all questions within 30 minutes on a

test probably here’s a negative example

he didn’t answer in this case he didn’t

answer his phone so if you call someone

and the other person does not pick up

the phone they don’t answer their phone

this is how you can explain that he

didn’t answer and we remove this part he

didn’t answer because from the situation

it’s quite clear he didn’t answer his

phone we know it’s his phone because you

were on the phone so he didn’t answer we

can use it in this way okay now that’s

answer let’s take a look at reply next

reply reply is used to to mean to react

to a statement or a question so someone

says something someone poses a question

asks a question to react to that we can

use the verb reply or rather we can use

reply to refer to our reaction to that

thing so we’ll see in just a moment

reply is not as formal as respond

actually from these verbs when I’m

emailing I tend to use reply in my

emails a lot more thank you very much

for your reply for for example so that’s

used as a noun but you can use it as a

verb so like please reply at your

earliest convenience for example you

could use that too in emails that’s what

I tend to use

anyway some examples of using reply here

first she replies to emails really

quickly so meaning she reacts to

people’s emails really quickly and Baidu

ng therefore returns the statement she

give something back she replies another

example he never replied to my message

this is past tense so I sent a message

to someone I did not receive a reaction

so I can say he never replied to my

message here’s another one we also used

this in writing like in novels and books

to describe someone’s reaction a

question what time is it 12 o’clock he

replied so you’ll see this in books lots

of storytelling uses reply as well reply

and response or respond as a verb in

more formal situations but reply is kind

of like a basic sort of neutral level

reaction to something so I tend to use

reply as a noun and as a verb a lot in

my email writing okay let’s move along

to respond then so respond also like

reply it means to react to a statement

or a question so these two have that

same meaning

however respond sounds a bit more formal

than reply so if you use respond in like

a text message to your friend like

please respond to my message or please

respond by tomorrow it might sound too

formal reply is probably better when

you’re texting your friends like please

reply to the invitation by tomorrow

sounds much more natural respond would

be good at work when you’re using like

work email for something or when you’re

on the phone as well

so using this is much better for like

business situations also respond has an

additional meaning that’s not related

exactly to communication respond can

also mean to have a good reaction to

something to have a good reaction to

something so I’ll share some examples of

this but this is not the focus meaning

for

lesson but I’ll introduce some examples

okay so let’s look at examples of this

part first I need to respond to that

email I need to respond to that email

maybe you’re telling your boss I need to

respond to that email from the client it

sounds a little more formal it sounds a

little more important another one a

question have you responded to those

inquiries yet have you responded to

those enquiries yet so you receive like

client inquiries or customer enquiries

an inquiry is a question so have you

responded to those enquiries yet another

one a negative they’re not going to

respond they’re not going to respond so

this is you’re making a guess a good

probably a strong guess the other party

or maybe the client the customer is not

going to respond they’re not going to

react to something okay so as I

mentioned respond does have this other

meaning of reacting favorably reacting

well to something so we used him for

like public reactions to things we can

use them a lot for medicine like

treatments and so on so here’s one she

responded well to treatment she

responded well to treatment this doesn’t

mean she said something or she wrote

something it means she received some

treatment she’s sick so she received

some treatment some medicine of some

kind and her body was happy about the

treatment there was a good response her

body responded well so there was a good

reaction in her body that’s what this

means here second example sentence I

think the public will respond well to

this policy so this is a prediction the

speaker is making a guess so they have

this new policy the speaker thinks the

public the general people out there in

that society will respond well in other

words they will have a good reaction to

this new policy so this use of response

is a little different from kind of

reacting to a statement or reacting to a

question it’s actually having a good

reaction to something so slightly

different and you might see this in

newse a lot too so keep an eye out for

that okay so this is a basic

introduction to the differences between

answer reply and respond I hope it was

helpful for you

of course if you have any questions or

comments or if you want to try to make

an example sentence please feel free in

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