Comprehend vs Construe - What's the difference?
comprehend | construe |
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.1:
* 1776 , (Edward Gibbon), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Penguin 2009, p. 9:
To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly.
To interpret or explain the meaning of something.
(grammar) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence.
*
To translate.
As verbs the difference between comprehend and construe
is that comprehend is while construe is to interpret or explain the meaning of something.As a noun construe is
a translation.comprehend
English
Verb
(en verb)- And lothly mouth, unmeete a mouth to bee, / That nought but gall and venim comprehended […].
- In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.
construe
English
Verb
(en-verb)- The world must construe''' according to its wits; this court must '''construe according to the law.
- , 1954
- Thus, in a sentence such as:
(113) John considers [S Fred'' to be too sure of ''himself'']
the italicised Reflexive ''himself'' can only be construed''' with ''Fred'', not with ''John'': this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a sentence such as:
(114) ''John'' seems to me [S — to have perjured ''himself'']
''himself'' must be '''construed with ''John .