It often depends on context. For example, to fear and to be afraid could mean exactly the same thing, e.g. I have a fear of flying / I am afraid of flying. However, in another context, they could mean something different: "I fear I am running late," does not actually mean the person is afraid, it's more a turn of phrase (in this case, a posh way of saying you're late!) I would say dread is something a bit different - a sense of foreboding. Imagine having a deep-seated fear or distaste for something that you expect is actually going to happen. You might dread going to the dentist, or dread Mondays ;) It sits inside of you for a long period of time. In contrast, fear is something that suddenly happens in response to something else. To scare would be an action taken - I can scare my cat if I make a loud noise. Then again, scared and afraid are synonyms, so I can be scared of the dentist and afraid of the dentist. There is no difference.

Fear and dread are stative verbs - the subject himself/herself experiences the state of fear from something (the object of the fear). Scare (and frighten) are causative verbs - the subject causes someone else to experience fear Afraid is not a verb. It's just a verbal adjective (a past participle, in this case) , the same as "frightened" "scared" . The actual verb whence it comes is afray (or affray), but it is not used very often anymore. Just as laid is the past tense of lay, afraid is the past tense of afray.

Hi there, Just to give some examples of the verbs you mention: 1) I fear going near dogs because I have been bitten in the past. 2) I dread going near dogs because I have been bitten in the past. Sentence 1 and 2 both mean approximately the same thing. It could be argued perhaps that "dread" is a more extreme example of "fear" in some contexts but people use it as a substitute for "fear" in a lot of conversational contexts, e.g. "I dread exams" or "I dread going to the dentist", but people might equally say "I fear going to the dentists". 3) There's no need for you to be afraid of this dog, he won't bite you. People also use "be afraid" without "to", for example when they say "he is afraid of dogs" or "they are afraid of dogs". 4) I am going to scare the postman by pretending to be a dog when he delivers the post. "To scare" someone is the same as frighten them or to cause them to panic. I hope that helps a little :) Sean

Thank you Kevin! :)

"to dread" is to feel very worried about something that might happen. ex: I dread to think what will become of America. ex: I dread the day when they find me