Difference between ANSWER REPLY and RESPOND Basic English Grammar
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101.com
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
the comment section of this video also
don’t forget to give us a thumbs up
subscribe to the channel if you haven’t
already and check us out at English
class 101.com
for other good English study tools
thanks very much for watching this
lesson and I will see you again next
time
[Music]