Response or Respond: What’s The Difference? (With Examples)

‘Response’ and ‘Respond’ are two terms that you are going to find thrown about quite often. So, what is the difference between them? Can you use one in a situation where the other isn’t appropriate? Let’s take a look.

What’s the Difference Between ‘Response’ and ‘Respond’?

The difference between ‘response’ and ‘respond’ is simple. The word ‘response’ is a noun, while ‘respond’ is a verb. Because of this, there is absolutely no overlap between the two of them. You are not able to use one word instead of the other.

response or respond

The word ‘response’ is a noun. You can imagine it as something that you give somebody i.e. ‘I am giving you a response’.

The word ‘respond’ is a verb. When this word is used, it indicates that an action is being taken i.e. ‘I will respond’.

As we said, the words ‘response’ and ‘respond’ are not directly interchangeable. If you wished to use the opposite word, you would need to change the structure of the sentences, for example:

  • The email needs a response.
  • You must respond to the email.

Response

The word ‘response’ is a noun. It is something that you can give (or not give, depending on the context). It does not necessarily mean that it must be physically given. A response could simply be a reaction to something.

According to The Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of ‘response’ is rather simple:

“an answer or reaction”

To give you more of an idea as to how response can be used in a sentence, here are some ideas.

The 4th sentence idea will give you an indication as to how you could use the word ‘response’ in an email, while the 5th sentence gives you an idea of how ‘response’ could be used in a formal setting.

  1. His response to the email was fast.
  2. I asked my girlfriend a question, but she gave no response.
  3. The police had a quick response to the 911 call.
  4. Please provide a response to this email as quickly as possible.
  5. Thank you for your response.

Respond

The word ‘respond’ is a verb. This means that it is an action that you can take. So, if you intend to give somebody a response, then you would ‘respond’ to them. Of course, because respond is a verb, you can have it in different tenses e.g. responded.

According to The Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of ‘respond’ is:

to say or do something as a reaction to something that has been said or done.

Here are a few ways that you can use ‘respond’ in a sentence. The 4th example will not only show you how to ask for a response via email but also how to use ‘respond’ in a much more formal way.

  1. You must respond to the invite by the 5th of July.
  2. When a team has a goal scored against them, they respond by using much more attacking tactics.
  3. My sister needed me to respond to her wedding invite via email.
  4. Please respond to the email at your earliest convenience.
  5. The customer service team aims to respond to all emails within 24 hours.

Appreciate Your Response or Respond?

You would use ‘appreciate your response’ rather than ‘appreciate your respond’. The latter option is grammatically incorrect. This is because ‘respond’ is a verb, while ‘response’ is a noun. When you ask for a response, you are asking somebody to give you something.

To better demonstrate this, it is worth imagining the ‘response’ as being something that can physically be given (although, a response does not have to be physical). This means that when you say “appreciate your response” you are saying that you want somebody to physically give you that response.

If you read these correct and incorrect sentences aloud, you will get an idea as to why ‘appreciate your response’ is better:

  1. I appreciate your response (correct)
  2. I appreciate your respond (incorrect)

Waiting For Response or Respond?

The correct usage here is ‘waiting for a response’. This is because you are waiting for somebody to give you something. Because ‘response’ is a noun, you can wait for that object. Respond is a verb, and you cannot use that without including the word ‘to’ beforehand.

The reason why we use ‘response’ instead of ‘respond’ here is that response is a noun. A response is something that you are given. In order to use the word ‘respond’ instead, you will have to add some extra words to indicate the use of a verb. This means you would need to phrase it ‘waiting for you to respond’.

It is worth pointing out that, technically, using just ‘response’ is incorrect. You should use the word ‘a’ or ‘the’ before it, although this isn’t always strictly necessary.

Here are correct and incorrect uses here:

  1. I am waiting for a response (correct)
  2. I am waiting for respond (incorrect)

Sorry For The Late Response or Respond?

Sorry for the late response’ is the correct usage here. This is because you are stating that you are giving them something late. You can give a noun (which is what response is), but you cannot give a verb (which is what respond is).

If you wished to use the word ‘respond’ instead, then you would have to completely change the structure of the sentence to accommodate the use of the verb. So, this would become:

“sorry to respond late”.

Here are correct and incorrect usages of these phrases:

  1. Sorry for the late response to the email (correct)
  2. She is sorry for the late respond (incorrect)

No Response or Respond?

‘No response’ is the only correct option here. You cannot say ‘no respond’. This is because ‘respond’ is a verb. If you wished to use it in this particular sentence, you would have to say ‘no responding’, which wouldn’t make sense in most contexts, particularly when it comes to emails.

The reason why ‘no response’ is correct is due to a response being given. Response is a noun. While you can also give a response, you can also not give a response.

Here are some example sentences. One of these is correct, and the other incorrect. This should give you more of an idea as to how these words work:

  1. There was no response to the email (correct)
  2. There was no respond to the email (incorrect)

Thank You For Your Response or Respond?

When you wish to thank somebody formally for a response, you would say “thank you for your response”. You cannot say say “thank you for your respond”, it would be grammatically incorrect.

‘Thank you for your response’ is often used in emails in formal settings, so you will often use at work. The reason why ‘response’ works here is because you can ‘give a response’. A response is an object (physical or digital) or a reaction. Because ‘respond’ is a verb, you cannot give a ‘respond’, you do a respond.

Here are some examples, both correct and incorrect:

  1. Thank you for your response to the email (correct)
  2. Thank you for your respond to the email (incorrect)