FOR INSTANCE: my sister's car door is broken. The inside panel came off. Brother-in-law put it back on.

He is trying to tell me how to open and shut the door without yanking the panel off again.

he is telling me to not pull the handle on the inside, but that it is ok to pull the latch

TO ME this is saying that you cannot open or shut the door from the inside

upon asking sister? You can OPEN the door from the inside, but can't close it

apparently we were using different words for the same thing

what I call the handle, he calls the lever

and what he calls the handle, I would just refer to as the door panel

*latch, not lever

idek where I got lever from