Word Usage – How to Decide: Annoy, Irritate, or Bother?

word-choiceword-differenceword-meaningword-usage

"Annoy:" means:

To make someone slightly angry or upset:

  • I know you’re doing this only to annoy me.

"Irritate:" means:

to make someone angry or annoyed:

  • After a while her behaviour really began to irritate me.

"Bother:" means:

to annoy or cause problems for someone:

  • The noise was beginning to bother us, so we left.

To me, when someone gets: "annoyed" or "irritated" or "bothered", an unpleasant stimulant has distracted his/her tranquility, comfort or peace of mind.

The only distinguishing factor that comes to mind is that **"irritate" sounds a bit more formal than the other two for everyday speech and people tend to use it mostly in written English as an alternative for "annoy" and "bother".

All that said, I wonder if you could help me to know what word is more appropriate in each one of the sentences below.

Also please let me know why do you think that way, so that I could find out how do they sound to you.

  1. He is a very kind and considerate man, but I don't know why he treated us like that at the party! His behavior really ……………. me.

a. annoyed
b. irritated
c. bothered

  1. Excuse me sir. Does my cigarette's smoke …………… you?

a. annoy
b. irritate
c. bother

  1. It's too hot in the train! I know that it's windy outside, but would it …………… you if I open the window for a couple of minutes? [Said a man to his roommate]

a. annoy
b. irritate
c. bother

Note: for me all three choices mean pretty much the same thing in all scenarios above and can be used interchangeably.

Best Answer

In all of your examples, all three are applicable depending on the context...

  1. He is a very kind and considerate man, but I don't know why he treated us like that at the party! His behavior really ................ me.

annoyed + irritated → basically the same for this example...

bothered → could mean worried (by the fact that he is generally kind but was rather rude at the party!) or could mean irritated (though worried might be a better usage for this word in this situation...

  1. Excuse me sir. Does my cigarette's smoke ............... you?

annoy + irritate + bother → all the same in this example (refer to the definitions you provided above for irritated and annoyed)

  1. It's too hot in the train! I know that it's windy outside, but would it ............... you if I open the window for a couple of minutes? [Said a man to his roommate]

annoy + irritate → probably not what you're looking for, but still could be used...

bother → probably what you would want to say; has the same essential meaning as annoy or irritate...

So, you'll notice that in all examples, annoy and irritate end up having the same meanings, but bother can sometimes be different. This is why I'd say with 98% confidence: annoy and irritate are synonyms.

Related Topic