Ironic vs. Coincidental
A lot of people get this wrong. If you
break your leg the day before a ski
trip, that’s not ironic —it’s
coincidental (and bad luck). Ironic
has several meanings, all of which
include some type of reversal of what
was expected. Verbal irony is when a
person says one thing but clearly
means another. Situational irony is
when a result is the opposite of what
was expected. O. Henry was a
master of situational irony. In his
famous short story The Gift of the
Magi , Jim sells his watch to buy
combs for his wife’s hair, and she
sells her hair to buy a chain for Jim’s
watch. Each character sold
something precious to buy a gift for
the other, but those gifts were
intended for what the other person
sold. That is true irony. If you break
your leg the day before a ski trip,
that’s coincidental. If you drive up to
the mountains to ski, and there was
more snow back at your house, that’s
ironic.
Imply vs Infer
To imply means to suggest something
without saying it outright. To infer
means to draw a conclusion from
what someone else implies. As a
general rule, the speaker/writer
implies , and the listener/reader
infers .
