Christanford  +  857528 Tue, 11 Aug 09 07:50 PM Hi, The announcement minutes later that her sentence had been commuted to 18 months' house arrest was "a choreographed attempt to get us to witness the leniency, clemency and humanity of the general [Than Shwe]", the source said. What is the difference between leniency and clemency? Thanks in advance Christanford Joined on Sat, Apr 7 2007 Full Member 295 Difference Between, Sentences

	Mr Wordy  +  857571 Tue, 11 Aug 09 08:25 PM In this sentence there isn't a whole lot of difference to me.   "clemency" is usually used in relation to punishment of offenders by the judicial system. "leniency" is often used in the same way, but it can also be used to refer to someone's behaviour or attitudes in a more general sense. Randomly Googled example: "His father's leniency was more than balanced, however, by a mother who was so strict...". In this sentence, "clemency" would seem a bit odd to me because no official judicial process is involved. Mr Wordy Joined on Tue, May 27 2008 Senior Member 2,359 Native British English speaker Sentences