Can they be used interchangeably? Are they both verbs and nouns?
The two words, corrupt and bribe can both be used as verbs. However only bribe can be used as a noun as corrupt isn’t a noun it is an adjective.
Even though corrupt and bribe can be used as verbs, they both have different meanings. When we use corrupt as a verb, it means to change something that was good to bad or to make somebody behave a certain way that they usually wouldn’t behave or to pervert something.
For example, some parents believe that certain television programmes or movies can corrupt their children’s minds. The child might see an actor on TV talking back to a parent or a teacher and think its cool so the child starts to mimic these actions.
On the other hand, when we use bribe as a verb it is referring to the act of giving or getting a bribe to or from somebody. When a person gives a bribe to somebody, it means they give money or some form of present to somebody in order to get him/her to do something immoral, illegal or dishonest.
For example, a criminal may try to bribe a witness before his or her trial, the witness could be bribed with money, gifts or favours and in return the witness would have to remain quiet to protect the criminal.
Here are a few examples of corrupt and bribe being used as verbs:
- In recent decades we have seen how money and power can corrupt people, certain people become greedy and start to want more money and more power. Their morals start to change and they end up doing immoral things they may not have done before, all for the sake of making more money and gaining more power.
- The mother tried to bribe her children with a movie night and treats as she needed them to be good while she hosted a dinner party for friends. She told them that if they were good all day they could watch a movie later and eat as many sweets as they wanted.
- The company bribed one of their employees last year, they promised to give him an early bonus this year as long as he stayed quiet about an upcoming case against the company. The employee accepted the bribe but he felt they had corrupted him so he quit one month later.
Now, let’s see how we can use bribe as a noun and corrupt as an adjective. The noun bribe refers to the money, gift or favour given by somebody to bribe another person. This gift acts as an incentive to get the person to do something they wouldn’t normally do.
For example:
- The employee got a promotion as a bribe to ensure that she wouldn’t sue the company for the unlawful treatment she experienced from her manager.
- The dog owner has been using dog treats as a bribe while training the young puppy. The treats are a great way to bribe the dog and give her praise when she does something right.
The adjective corrupt is used to describe people or things that are corrupt, immoral, wrong, dishonest and so on.
For example:
- The corrupt politicians gained power and earned more money, the money that should have been going to the most vulnerable people in the country were going straight into the dishonest and corrupt politicians pockets.
- The corrupt staff members allowed their colleague to take the blame. They knew that if the authorities found out how much they had stolen from the company, they would be in jail for a very long time.
As you can see from the explanations and examples above, we can’t use the words interchangeably without changing the meaning of the sentence.
