Are response and answer the same? Can I use them for the same meaning?
Are response and answer the same? Can I use them for the same meaning?
2 Answers
Hola Dulce,
"Can I use them for the same meaning?"
A veces se puede.
"Answer" tiene dos significados. Uno es que alguien ha dicho algo y lo cual ha dicho tiene razón, es cierto, es correcto, etc.
Por ejemplo: "Cual is la respuesta correcta a esta prueba de aptitud?"
"What is the answer to this test?"
En este caso "answer" significa la respuesta correcta.
Sin embargo, en el otro caso, "answer" se usa exactamente igual de "response ."
Por ejemplo, entre dos mujeres que platican del hombre.
Mujer Uno: Le pregunté ayer si iba a venir. --- I asked him yesterday if he was going to come tomorrow.
Mujer Dos: ¿Y? ¿Qué fue su respuesta? --- And? What was his answer? O And? What was his response?
Al fin te digo esto. Cada "answer" es un "response" pero cada "response" no es siempre un "answer."
- 1) tr. Responder a lo que se pregunta, se habla o se escribe.- 2) tr. Responder a una llamada.
An example of a context where they are not interchangeable or perhaps not even synonymous:
3) tr. Replicar, impugnar.
One can contest (fight/argue against) an unfair judgement, but respond would not imply the same reaction.
Contestar does not always mean answer neither does responder. When it means respond rather than answer it may not be synonymous with contestar.
Oh, your question concerns the English words answer and respond? Same answer (no pun) as in Spanish...the words are sometimes synonymous, but in other contexts they are not.
