[vil]

Dear teachers,

I know that to bother and to annoy are synonyms.

annoy = aggravate, anger, bother, displease, disturb, exasperate, harass, harm, irk, irritate, madden, molest, pester, plague, provoke, rile, ruffle, tease, trouble, vex.

Today before noon, I ran into a sentence that bewildered me. Here it is:

Don’t bother me with your foolish questions, or I shall be annoyed.

There are used both synonyms bother and annoy in the immediate vicinity, thick and fast.

Would you be kind enough explain to me the difference between the mentioned above verbs? For your information, in accordance with my Dictionary the verbs in question above are interchangeable.

I think that to bother as contrasted with to annoy refers to the act of interrupting or disturbing someone, of preventing him from continuing to do what he is doing; whereas to annoy refers to the feeling caused in the person by such (continued, repeated) interruptions. Bother sometimes implies bewilderment or worry and axiety, e.g.

The variety of responsibilities Figaro had would have bothered anybody but him.
That doesn’t bother me, it’s quite simple.
“I hope the child isn’t bothered you too much”the mother said to her neighbour.

To annoy stresses loss of calm or patience. It seldom implies more than a temporally disturbance or display of nerves. e.g.

Everybody was annoyed as, though everything was ready for the start, comrade Leonov was late as usual and kept us waiting.
What annoyed him most was that he had received no apology.
It really annoys me when I see people dropping litter.
She annoyed him with her stupid questions.

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Regards.

V.