"Suffer" vs. "suffer from" - English Language & Usage Stack ...

If you say someone suffers, it means that they are enduring physical or emotional pain. If you want to say what is causing the suffering, you add the ... EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Collaborateandshareknowledgewithaprivategroup. CreateafreeTeam WhatisTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore "Suffer"vs."sufferfrom" AskQuestion Asked 8years,3monthsago Active 1year,7monthsago Viewed 64ktimes 9 2 Iwouldliketoknowthedifferencebetween"suffer"and"sufferfrom".Fromthedictionary,Icannotdistinguishbetweenthem.Inparticular,whichofthefollowingshouldIuse: sufferinterferencefromothertransmitters sufferfrominterferencefromothertransmitters word-choicedifferencesverbstransitivity Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedSep25'13at10:19 RegDwigнt♦ 94.9k3737goldbadges304304silverbadges396396bronzebadges askedSep25'13at9:53 ChangChang 19311goldbadge11silverbadge44bronzebadges 0 Addacomment  |  4Answers 4 Active Oldest Votes 11 IdisagreewithVB.NETLEARNER.Therearetwodifferentverbs. Thecommononeisintransitive,soeitherhasnoobject,ortheobjectisindirect,withfrom.Theliteralmeaningis"feelpain",as Howhesuffers! Isufferfromabadback butitisoftenusedfiguratively,withmeaningslike"beinconvenienced" Hesuffersfromhisbaddecisions. Theotherverbistransitive(takesadirectobject),andisratherliterary.Itmeansundergo,orexperience,usuallywithanegativeconnotation,andoftenwithanimplicationthatoneisresolutelyacceptingtheexperience.Amorecolloquialequivalentwouldbeputupwith: Hesufferedtheindignityofanexamination. Wesufferedapowercutyesterday. Therearesomecaseswherebothwouldwork,butwithdifferentmeanings.So Freddiesuffersfromhisbaddecisions meansthathis(maybeFreddy'sown,maybesomebodyelse's)decisionsaffectFreddyandmakelifedifficultforhim;but Freddiesuffershisbaddecisions (whichasIsayissomewhatliterary)meansthatFreddieisaffectedbyhis(somebodyelse's)baddecisions,butcarriesonnevertheless. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedJun15'20at7:40 CommunityBot 1 answeredSep25'13at15:56 ColinFineColinFine 73.9k11goldbadge8989silverbadges188188bronzebadges 3 Isuspectthat,inAmericaatleast,outsidetheexpression"sufferthelittlechildren,"wehavemade"sufferfrom"equivalentto"suffer."The"literaryusage"isinfactanobsoleteusage.I'dlaughifsomeoneuseditinane-mail."Iwillnotsufferanotherunscheduledreboot!" – GregHullender Sep25'13at17:39 It'snotobsoletetome.ButIwouldn'tuseitwith"Iwill(not)",becausethatintentionalitydoesn'tseemtofititsmeaning. – ColinFine Sep25'13at23:21 It'snotobsoletetomeeither.It'sstillwellunderstood. – IsabelArcher May30'20at11:32 Addacomment  |  1 “Sufferthelittlechildrentocomeuntomeandforbidthemnot,for suchisthekingdomofheaven”Matthew19:1 So“suffer”byitselfcanalsomeanallow. TheOxfordDictionaryon-linehas: archaicTolerate. ‘Francewillnolongersuffertheexistinggovernment’ ButI’mnotsureaboutitbeing‘archaic’asitalsohasthelivingexampleinthephrase: ‘hewasaperfectionistwhodidn’tsufferfoolsgladly’ Asfortheexamplesthepostergives,theyreallybelongonSEEnglishLanguageLearners.ThesamepageoftheOxfordDictionaryon-linehasexamplesofsufferandsufferfrom,butdoesnotreallyexplainthedifference.Iimaginethisispossible,butfornativespeakersitisaquestionofusage.Theexamplesonthatpageclearlyindicatethat: sufferfrominterferencefromothertransmitters wouldbecorrect,correspondingtoexample1.1;andommittingthe‘from’doesnotcorrespondtoanyoftheexamplestherewithout‘from’,andappearsstrangetome. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedJun6'18at21:41 answeredJun6'18at19:23 DavidDavid 9,24366goldbadges1818silverbadges5151bronzebadges Addacomment  |  0 Ithinkitdependsonthequestionaskedorinfoyouwanttoconvey.I'mnotveryknowledgeablewhenitcomestoEnglishgrammarandIamnotanativeEnglishspeaker,butlookatthefollowingexample: (Ifyouwilllookatthesesentences,itseemsthatallofthemsaythesamething.Butifyouanalyzethem,whattheyconveyseemsdifferent) Mr.Xissufferingfromhisillness<<<