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Oblige vs Accommodate vs Favor

Obligeaccommodatefavor mean to do a service or courtesy.

To oblige a person is to make him indebted by doing something that is pleasing to him. It is commonly used as a conventional acknowledgment of small courtesies or offices.

Accommodate, when it is used of services, is often interchangeable with oblige. Sometimes, especially in the participial adjective, it implies gracious compliance or it may connote the intent to be of assistance.

But accommodate often suggests a business transaction rather than an act of kindness, and an obligation to pay or repay. In such use it usually implies a loan of money or acceptance as a paying guest (see also CONTAIN ).

To favor, by contrast, is to render an attention or a service out of goodwill and commonly without imposing an obligation on, or expecting a return from, the person favored.

Sometimes there is a suggestion of gratuitousness or a patronizing character in the action.