A Brief Disquisition on Convince and Persuade
Let’s take a moment to discuss an endangered distinction in the language that is worth preserving.
Many educated people have trouble distinguishing between the verbs to convince and to persuade. So many people now fail to make the proper distinction in their speech and writing that these words are now often used interchangeably and the fine difference between them is in danger of becoming lost.
If you hear nothing wrong in the sentences “I couldn’t convince him to agree with me” and “She convinced him to go,” then I urge you to pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you.
The handbook of SPELL (Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature, of which I am a vice president) explains that “to convince someone is to bring the person to your point of view. To persuade someone is to induce the person to do something.” For example, if you are convinced that Verbal Advantage is a worthwhile program, then I don’t have to persuade you to finish it.
In Common Errors in English and How to Avoid Them (1943), Alexander M. Witherspoon, who taught English at Berkeley and Yale, writes that “persuade emphasizes the idea of winning over. Convince emphasizes the idea of proof by argument.” Witherspoon offers these examples: “They persuaded me to go home with them. They convinced me that their candidate was the best by showing me his record, and persuaded me to vote for him.”
In The Writer’s Art (1984), syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick offers three examples of the egregious misuse of convince for persuade: “The court ‘ruled Monday against a leukemia victim who is trying to convince a woman to donate bone marrow’”; “She recently convinced him to take her to Monte Carlo’”; and “If Venezuela can convince its banks to convert many of the short-term debts…’”
“Yeccch!” writes Kilpatrick. “In each instance, the proper verb was persuade.”
Here’s a good way to remember the distinction: Persuade usually takes an infinitive, meaning it is often followed by to: You persuade someone to do something. Convince is never followed by an infinitive. You don’t convince me to do something; you persuade me to do it. Convince should be followed by either of or that: You are convinced of the truth, or convinced that something is important.
As Kilpatrick puts it, “An argument that is persuasive may not be convincing. But once we are convinced of something, persuasion has done its job.” I hope that my attempt to persuade you to preserve this distinction in the language has left you convinced that making it in your own speech and writing is the right thing to do.
