 Let's discuss the difference between assault and battery. These two get mixed up a lot because a lot of people and even some lads use the words interchangeably. Basically, the difference is that battery means touching someone and assault means making someone think you're going to touch them. For battery, the touch can be harmful, or it can be offensive, even if it doesn't cause any physical injury. As long as the first person meant to touch the second and it causes harm, it's battery, even if they didn't mean to cause the harm. If the touch is something that is acceptable for a reasonable person to do in everyday life, then it won't be a battery, even if it causes harm. After all, we have to touch strangers all the time and we don't want all of them suing us. Assault, on the other hand, is when you do something that would make a reasonable person think that you are about to touch them in a harmful or offensive way. In short, it's making someone think you're going to batter them. You can even assault someone if you have no intention of actually hitting them, as long as they don't know that. Or you can't assault someone if they can tell there's no way you can actually touch them. All of this together means you can have assault without battery, or battery without assault. And there you have it.