to admit / to confess

ready to make a little effort?

For sure almost all of us know a verb ‘to admit’. We use it when we want to say that we agree on the fact we’ve done something bad or wrong or just a fact of something.

(Don’t be confused of ‘to accept’ - this verb is used when we want to show that we understand another point of view and even agree on the statement (but not always - we can accept but agree).

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Anyway, the topic is about a pair: ‘admit and confess’ and the previous example will help us to understand the difference.

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First, some examples of common usage.

Admit

(admit and acknowledge mistakes or crimes, means the fact of them;

also it is used to show that somebody/something is allowed to enter somewhere)

• Some members of the German government admit the policy of multiculturalism was failed.

• She admitted the she’d stolen a lipstick.

• After some years a boy’s admitted he didn’t behave in school.

• After five hours out of a hot debate a politician admitted his defeat.

• Children are admitted free to the museums on weekends (they are allowed to go there for free).

• The Russian Federation was admitted to the UN (it was allowed to join the organization).

Confess

(also used for admitting crimes or mistakes or SINS (in addition) but with a little but very important difference* (about the difference in a few examples below);

also it is used when people start believing in something (related to the religion)

• People can confess believes, for example people confess faith in Christ.

• The murderer has confessed his crimes in the court.

• They have confessed their sines to a priest.

• He confessed he hadn’t believed him, he was sorry.

The difference*

The main idea is both of them are used for admitting mistakes and crimes.

The difference lies here:

• admission is related to only mental things, in our head, we can admit a mistake but deal with it, we can admit a mistake but among people we still reject it.

• confession is related to an action, a person feels guilty and admitting in front of a person or a body in an oral or written ways.

Confession is followed by forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation. It is deeper than admission. That’s the point.

In other words, admission doesn’t require any effort but confession requires some efforts as well as an action.

In conclusion let’s put a situation and two ways of getting it finished.

• Oliver admitted he cheated on his wife as a fact and doesn’t feel anything special about it, just doesn’t care because he didn’t love her.

• Oliver confessed he cheated on his wife, he actually felt guilty, he was really sorry and said everything in front of her. He confessed his mistake and his wife also made an effort and gave him her forgiveness.

P.S. “the version for too modern people” (by the way, take a look at the language is considered as neutral nowadays).

• A person admitted they cheated on their partner as a fact and don’t feel anything special about it.

• A person confessed they cheated on their partner, they actually felt guilty, they were really sorry and said everything in front of them. The person confessed their mistake and their partner also made an effort and gave them their forgiveness.

Task

Guys, for having some practice I advise you to come up with a couple of examples of the most interesting part of the explanation in the comment section.