What's the diff between retweeting, direct messaging, and replying on Twitter?

[moonii]

Is it just me who finds it confusing? (but better yet it'd be nice to know which one to use in the appropriate situation). Thanks in advance.

[kyle]

If somebody you're following tweets something that you like and want to share, you use the retweet. You type "RT @[person who tweeted]:" then copy-paste their message. To reply to somebody's tweet, you type "@[person you want to reply to]" then your reply. A dirct message is used when you want to talk to someone through Twitter but you dont want anybody else to see your conversation. They are private between you and the person you message.

[TwitterMonster]

direct messaging is "private" and sends your message to the inbox the other tweeter

retweeting you are "publicly" resending a message from another user, so YOUR follower
could read this message - the way you do it is to use the "RT" shortcut and the name of the
person you did quote

RT @nameofperson Nobody knows enough to be a pessimist.

replying is also a "public" action using the name of the person and writing a new message behind it

@nameofperson I did like this quote from you