Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 521. The title of today's lesson is the
difference between refuse and decline. Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot , do it right
now. Okay. Let's get right to it. If someone refuses to do something, he or she deliberately
says that they will not do this particular thing. Often in a strong way. Yes. So if
you're refusing, (there is) something about it you really don't like and that's why you're saying no.
It may be because something is offensive, insulting, embarrassing, dangerous,
or basically just unpleasant in some way. There's something about it you really don't like. So for
that reason you're refusing it. All right. Let's continue. If someone declines something, it is a
more formal polite way of saying that you will not accept something. So in both cases of course there
is a little bit of crossover because in both cases you're not accepting something. You're not taking
something. You're saying" no" to something, but again with "refuse" it's a strong no. Decline
it's not necessarily a strong no. It's definitely a no, but it is a more polite way of saying no.
Let's continue. It is not necessarily a strong no. One may have seriously considered this particular
offer or one may still have said "no" for some reason. Perhaps one simply had a better offer
or another personal reason for not accepting it. Yeah. Who knows ? It's a case-by-case basis.
All right and we have six examples here to kind of give you a better idea
of when we will use one instead of the other. All right here's the first one.
That actress refused to do that nude scene. Well maybe they wanted her to do a scene
where she has to be completely naked. Maybe she's uncomfortable with this. I remember
years ago, I think actresses had a little bit more say in this that they could do it.
Nowadays, it's very difficult because just about every actress has to do a nude scene somewhere in
some particular movie, but there was a time where, especially if they were a more established actress
they probably had the ability to say "no. : I'm not doing that. You know, that you know maybe
they felt it was embarrassing or offensive or you know for them. Maybe they were more conservative.
Who knows ? But nowadays this has become much more difficult for them. Let's continue. Number
two. She refused that job because she doesn't want a job in which she feels that she will
constantly have to annoy people. You know, there are a lot of jobs like this, especially in sales.
Maybe phone sales where you're calling people up and they you know, they don't really want to do
this. Most of them. So most of them you know, get annoyed or get angry. It's not easy to have a job
where you know, you know you're bothering these people. So she doesn't want that sort of a job.
So that would be very unpleasant for her. Maybe she's not the type of person that could do that.
All right. Let's continue. Number four. Even though that position was higher pay,
he decided that he, he declined the offer because he would stay away from his family too often. So
yeah. This is a polite way. He finally said "no. " This is more of a personal decision though.
Maybe he's you know he's putting his family first. He doesn't want to be away from his family
that much or that often. Maybe it was probably a job overseas where his family could not go
you know, maybe they were all in their different schools or something. It would have
well ...maybe the wife had a job you know in the home country and it would have been very
difficult. So he still declined. He still said "no. " Even though, maybe if it was at home,
he might have taken it. Under different circumstances, he might have said "yes, " but
he in this case he declined. All right. Let's continue. She declined that invitation because
she had another obligation. Yeah. Well this could be a true one maybe you you know,
you can't be in two places at one time. And maybe something else was booked ,
scheduled already she couldn't get out of it. So she had to say "no. " So she had to decline
because just like we say you can't be in two places at one time. Number six. They offered me
some coffee , but I declined because I didn't feel like it. Again not a strong "no. " Maybe
just weren't in the mood for coffee. Maybe you already had a lot of coffee that day or you just
didn't feel like coffee at the moment. So you'd go and say well no thank you. I'm okay for now.
Something like that. So you decline. It's not like you refuse. Like oh no coffee. Coffee's terrible.
How dare you offer me coffee. That would be kind of like you refused. That that doesn't
really make sense. You know , unless somebody for some reason really dislikes coffee, but anyway,
so you would say you would decline a very informal way, a very a formal way actually of saying
"no. " Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.