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('Infer' is a perfectly good verb; you don't have to make one out of 'inference'. But sometimes it's easy to disremembrance things like that on HN.)
by JasonFruit 8y ago
('Infer' is a perfectly good verb; you don't have to make one out of 'inference'. But sometimes it's easy to disremembrance things like that on HN.)
- lisper 8y agoI believe lispm is not a native English speaker. His website TLD is .de.
- JasonFruit 8y agoYes, I see. Doesn't mean he or she might not rather be correct, however.
- lisper 8y agoTrue that.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lispm 8y agoThanks, didn't remember that.
- mercer 8y agoIt's an easy mistake to make. Incidentally, "infer", for some reason, is a word I find unusually pleasing. EDIT: as a non-native speaker I distinctly remember first reading the word and happily using it ever since, when appropriate.
- JasonFruit 8y agoPerfectly fair — I'm sure you're not the first to inference something. And yes, 'infer' is an interesting word, especially when you bring in Latin.
- vram22 8y agoAnd a similar possibly wrong usage is "conference" when used as a verb, maybe, since "confer" is probably okay. But "conference" seems to have become accepted, I've heard it a bit. There's this trend (from many years, not just recent) to make nouns into verbs too, e.g. "Skype me". The "confer" form as a verb probably sounds archaic to many, since it's not commonly heard or read (AFAIK).