Merit and Deserve
For what purpose, is merit used and deserve used?

We say, he doesn't merit in any form of severe punishment. Also, we can use 'deserve' instead.

What are the differences between them to the native speakers?

Question

Merit and Deserve
For what purpose, is merit used and deserve used?

We say, he doesn't merit in any form of severe punishment. Also, we can use 'deserve' instead.

What are the differences between them to the native speakers?

Answer

Hi there!

I would personally say that 'merit' is mainly used for good things and not bad things, whereas 'deserve' can be used for both good and bad things.  I would therefore probably use deserve in your sentence above, although I would not go as far as to say that 'merit' would be wrong

I personally would use 'merit' for something like an award, a prize, recognition etc.

I feel that merit is also a little more formal than deserve, I would never use merit informally.  Again that's more of a feeling though.