student asking question

What is the difference between "wait" and "await"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Both "wait" and "wait" mean the same thing which is to stay in place in expectation of something. However, the two verbs each require a different sentence structure. An intransitive verb, "wait" requires a preposition before the object. If you look at the examples below, you can see that they use "for" after wait. Ex: I am waiting for her. Ex: He is waiting for a train. Ex: She rang the bell and waited. In the last example, there is no "for" because "wait" does not have direct object. However, an object can come right after "await", because "await" is a transitive verb. Ex: We await him. Ex: He eagerly awaited arrival. Therefore, it will be easy to understand if you think "await" is like "wait for."

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