unresponsive

Hi All,

First of all, this is my first post here and I'm so glad to have found such a great resource for learning English! Thank you everyone for all your help in advance.

Here is my question: I'm a bit confused as I don't know whether I can use the adjective unresponsive to a person who tends to answer emails with long delays. So, if I were asked about a person's ability of replying in a timely manner, and I say "you shouldn't rely on him as he is pretty unresponsive" does it sound natural for a native speaker, and most importantly, it conveys exactly what I'm trying to express?

Thank you!

Welcome to the forum! I hope you find it as helpful as I have. Now to your question:

Unless you wish to be formal, I would suggest you merely say something like, "He's not very good about answering his email."

or

"If you need an answer right away, I wouldn't depend on him. He doesn't answer his emails in a timely manner."

If you say "You shouldn't rely on him" that is a stronger statement than only saying he just doesn't answer his email as fast as he should.

If you say a person is unresponsive, without reference to an object, it sounds like the person is passed out or unconscious. 👁 Smile :)


However, "You shouldn't rely on him, as he is pretty unresponsive to email." is informal sounding, but correct.

I think the problem is that "unresponsive" is pretty-much a black and white issue - he's either unresponsive or he isn't. The way to use "unresponsive" in this context is to specify a time-frame ie:

"You shouldn't rely on him as he's pretty unresponsive for the first 2 months".