Would you like to tell us what’s the difference between collaborate, cooperate and coordinate?
Compared to “cooperate”, “collaborate” tends to suggest a closer relationship. For example, two authors might collaborate on a book, meaning that they write it together, working jointly towards a shared goal. “collaborate” sometimes has a sense of working jointly to do something bad.
You can “cooperate” towards a shared goal too, but you might also cooperate simply to help out someone else, and cooperation does not necessarily have to be done enthusiastically. For example, someone might cooperate with the police after their arrest, which would mean answering questions honestly, and so forth. If they “collaborated” with the police then it would imply that the police were crooked.
“coordinate” is different. It means to direct and organise people/tasks/etc. so that they all work together smoothly.
Could you possible be thinking of ‘collude’, Dozy?
‘Collaborate’ to me can be equally positive or negative. It only has a sense of working to do something bad if that is what the context indicates.
If someone were to say ‘Who were the collaborators?’ or ‘Who collaborated on this?’ without additional context, I would not immediately think negatively.
In contrast, if someone were to say ‘Who colluded on this?’ then I would immediately think of something more conspirational, secretive or harmful.
No, I think I was thinking of collaborating with an enemy, but I didn’t explain it specifically enough.
I thought you probably meant it was context dependent - it seems that’s the case. No worries. Your explanations are always pretty specific.
Thanks Dozy and Beees neees,
I’m so glad to get the helps from both of you.
Would you like to give me any examples with each word? That will be more helpful for me to understand and use them correctly.
Dozy has given examples of ‘collaborate’ and ‘coordinate’.
collaborate: the writers worked together and successfully collaborated on a number of novels.
coordinate: the manager coordinated the efforts of his team, making sure everyone did their part to make the project successful.
‘Collude’ = conspire, plot.
The president accused his opponents of colluding with bank officials to rig the prices.