What is the difference between infringing and inflicting

There are certain words that have different meanings but that are pronounced or written in a very similar way, so it is easy to get confused and not be very clear which one to use in each case. These terms are called paronyms and it is convenient to know the meaning of each one in order to use the correct form. An example of this are the verbs 'inflict' and 'inflict', discover in this article what is the difference between 'infringing' and 'inflicting' .

Infringe upon

First, note that 'infringing' is a verb that comes from the Latin 'infringere' and that according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) should be used under the following meaning

  • "Breaking laws, orders, norms, etc."

Examples:

The rules are for compliance and should not be infringed .

You just violated a basic circulation rule.

In this way, when we want to refer to the breach of any rule, we must write 'infringe' .

Inflict

Instead, 'inflict' is a verb that comes from the Latin ' infligere' and has a completely different meaning:

  • "Cause damage, hurt, hit".
  • "Impose a punishment".

Example:

They have inflicted two years in prison for the crimes committed.

Therefore, we already know what is the difference between 'infringing' and inflicting ', that they are two verbs with different meanings and that they can not be used interchangeably.