persuade me!

Question

what are the differences between"convince" and "persuade"? are they same?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

When you convince sy, they finally see reason.
Persuade sy means they agree, more against their better judgement.

Likeguslee · Answer

The following usage note from American Heritage Dictionary will help you differentiate the meaning between the two verbs

Synonyms: persuade, induce, prevail, convince. These verbs are compared as they mean to succeed in causing a person to do or consent to something. Persuade means to win someone over, as by reasons, advice, urging, or personal forcefulness: Nothing can persuade her to change her mind once it is made up. To induce is to lead, as to a course of action, by means of influence or persuasion: "Pray what could induce him to commit so rash an action?" (Oliver Goldsmith). One prevails on somebody who resists: "He had prevailed upon the king to spare them" (Daniel Defoe). To convince is to persuade by the use of argument or evidence: "In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs" (Francis Darwin).

Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Anonymous · Answer

Wenrouhuwhat are the differences between"convince" and "persuade"? are they same?

In common use they're very similar. However, somebody convinced is now 100% sure that something is correct. Somebody who is persuaded to do something is often far less than 100% sure that what they are doing is correct. you may persuade somebody to do something which is against their will.

For example.

John has persuaded me to go to the party on saturday, but I'm still not convinced that it's a good idea.

another distinction is that people tend to be persuaded to act in a particular way, but convinced that certain thing is true. This can also be seen in the example above.

When people are less than 100% sure of something they are being told, we also use the term "led to believe"

For example

I have been led to believe that there will be a live band at the party on saturday.

However, when used in the past tense, "led to believe" indicates something that was thought to be true, but later turns out not to be.

for example

I had been led to believe that Judy would be at the party last saturday, but she didn't turn up.

Hope this helps

persuade me!

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions