[majid72]

hello

Would you please tell me some sentences in which convince and persuade cannot be interchangeably used?

Thanks a lot

[susan53]

I've looked through about 200 sample sentences and can't find any difference- as long as you're talking just about the forms convince/persuade as active verbs and not related forms like convinced (adj) and so on.

You can both convince/persuade someone to do something and convince/persuade someone that something is true. Maybe there's sometimes a slight difference in meaning : in some (not all) of the examples convince seems to be preferred when the writer is talking about using a logical argument, while in some (not all) others persuade seems to have been chosen to express an emotional argument.

I also considered that maybe if you were convinced to do something you always believed in it, while you might be persuaded without really believing it was a good idea. But Google
I/He/She (etc) persuaded /convinced me/her/him to do it against my (etc) better judgement
and both verbs pop up. So that's out too.

I reckon they're close to synonymous.

[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

Quote susan53

I've looked through about 200 sample sentences and can't find any difference- as long as you're talking just about the forms convince/persuade as active verbs and not related forms like convinced (adj) and so on.

You can both convince/persuade someone to do something and convince/persuade someone that something is true. Maybe there's sometimes a slight difference in meaning : in some (not all) of the examples convince seems to be preferred when the writer is talking about using a logical argument, while in some (not all) others persuade seems to have been chosen to express an emotional argument.

I also considered that maybe if you were convinced to do something you always believed in it, while you might be persuaded without really believing it was a good idea. But Google
I/He/She (etc) persuaded /convinced me/her/him to do it against my (etc) better judgement
and both verbs pop up. So that's out too.

I reckon they're close to synonymous.

I agree with Susan and would like to add one more variation. I'd use "convince" when I want to change someone's perception about a topic. I'd use "persuade" to get them to do something (i.e. a task).

Convince = to change one's thoughts about something
Persuade = to get someone to do something, but, not necessarily believe in it.

Example sentence - You can convince someone that people can fly, but you cannot persuade them to try and fly.

In that example, the word "convince" cannot be changed out for "persuade".

[susan53]

Example sentence - You can convince someone that people can fly, but you cannot persuade them to try and fly.

In that example, the word "convince" cannot be changed out for "persuade".[/quote]


I would say that it can. Do a corpus search in a concordancer rather than relying on your own intuition - both are used in both ways. If you look in a good dictionary (I checked the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary) you should find both definitions for both words.

[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

Quote susan53

I reckon they're close to synonymous.

I do as well. But, they aren't the same, however close they are to being the same thing.

[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

Quote susan53

Example sentence - You can convince someone that people can fly, but you cannot persuade them to try and fly.

In that example, the word "convince" cannot be changed out for "persuade".

I would say that it can. Do a corpus search in a concordancer rather than relying on your own intuition - both are used in both ways. If you look in a good dictionary (I checked the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary) you should find both definitions for both words.

Hi Susan,

I can see what you are saying, however, the two words should not be used interchangibly as they do have different meanings. To further my point, try thinking of the two words this way:

Convince = much stronger and pushy
Persuade = more suave

Ex. A pushy salesman will convince you to buy something while a suave salesmen will persuade you.

There is a difference.