student asking question

What's the main difference between saying "Are you sure?" and "Are you serious?" Or are they all interchangeable?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The main difference between "are you sure?" and "are you serious?" is that "are you sure?" is asking if someone is certain about something, whereas "are you serious?" is asking if someone is being honest and not joking. Ex: I'm not joking, Tim. I'm being serious. I want to break up. Ex: Are you seriously leaving? Ex: Are you sure you want to leave? Ex: She's sure that she wants to move to Canada.

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