This may be attributed to how all three words can be associated with the sureness of an outcome. You may be thinking, how did he ever make it through the last few months of election coverage and financial meltdowns without any pet peeve updates. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, grammar girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help. But in this case, not thinking is actually better than thinking. Learn the definitions of insure, assure, and ensure, and when to use them. Grammar girl quick and dirty tips for better writing. She hastened to assure me that the report contained no critical comment on my departments performance. From the quick and dirty tips series, grammar girl aka mignon fogarty provides you tips to improve your writing in a short and fun format. But, according to mignon fogarty grammar girl, none can be singular as in none of the students was. Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to use insure and ensure interchangeably. Heres what you need to know in the battle of insure vs. Many scholars maintain there is no such word as irregardless because regardless already means without regard. Some sources note that people use assure, ensure, and insure interchangeably.
However, rather than using these words interchangeably, id like to point out the unique aspects of each word so that you can use them to communicate your intention clearly. If a that clause follows the verb, you must use ensure. We ensured the success of the plan after we assured the chairman that the property would be insured. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing book. While english itself is germanic, many words from romance languages like french, spanish, and latin have made their way into the english lexicon over the centuries. In many areas of life, such cavalier carelessness is a bad idea. To ensure is to do or have what is necessary for success. The difference between beside and besides english grammar lesson duration. Amazingly, they come to the same conclusions as lynn above, and also avoid. Mignon fogarty, the creator of grammar girl and the founder of the quick and dirty tips network, is also the author of the new york times bestselling grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing and the grammar devotional.
Confusing words and homonyms misused words in english. The english language borrows words from many other languages. Continue this thread view entire discussion 6 comments. The grammar instruction was a mix of things i already knew its vs.
To ensure something is to make sure it happensto guarantee it. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by. The airport management took steps to ensure the safety of the passengers. At the time i recorded this, they had not done so yet.
Founder of the quick and dirty tips podcasting network. Each word pair entry contains a straightforward explanation complete with examples to ensure or is it insure. Fowlers modern english usage says that assure, ensure and insure have intersecting paths in contexts involving aspects of certainty. It is possible to use the spelling of insure, ensure, and assure to distinguish the three words from one another. If you are writing about kelsey grammer, or, for some reason. Grammarly can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes. This makes the connection between the two words very clear. Let me show you quickly whats the difference between ensure vs insure. From punctuation to style, grammar girl has you covered in her weekly on demand podcasts. To the delight of word nerds everywhere, grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing came out yesterday.
Centers for disease control cdc are still sticking with epidemic for now. Some words in the english language are so overused that we dont notice that they are incorrect or dont even exist. His latest book ensured his success as a novel writer. It has been used by good writers from before the writing of most of the grammar books that condemn the practice.
If they were, then cars can be ensured and confusion can be insured. We do enjoy fine distinctions and thats why the blog titled, assure vs ensure vs insure makes distinctions between these words even though the distinctions are not always quite so clearly defined. Listen to grammar girl quick and dirty tips for better writing episodes free, on demand. Other authorities, however, consider ensure and insure interchangeable. In this video linda explains the differences between assure, insure and ensure. Insure is the easiest to remember, because it has the same initial letters as insurance. The system of rules for modifying the structure of language, however, is always spelled grammar. English has a long history of confusion of singular and plural. Most people regularly write stuff like we went to jamess house without stopping to think whether it should be james house. Want to go farther and insure a series is continuous. What you ensure results from your personal efforts.
However, it is worth noting that in older usage these. Homonyms are sometimes confusing words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. Possessives of nouns ending in s grammar underground. Felice primeau devine is a writer from albany, new york. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. When you have a singular noun, you need to use is, e.
To insure something or someone is to cover it with an insurance policy. I have read several books on word usage and have benefited from all. Also, insure is typically reserved for financial meanings. Assure vs ensure the english language can be very confusing if one is learning it as a foreign language. Trey has a basketball game tomorrow, and he plays point guard.
Ensure vs insure short explanation with simple examples. However by taking the time to look over common grammatical errors, you will be able to avoid making them in your written and spoken language. That is used to indicate a specific object, item, person, condition. August must have been a big month for this, as the grammar girl tackled it as well. These blankets ensure that youll be warm enough to insure is to cover with an insurance policy what you insure you entrust to a business. Its so annoying when publications use the word insure when ensure is intended. Written with the wit, warmth, and accessibility that the podcasts are known for, grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing covers the grammar rules and wordchoice guidelines that can confound even the best writers.
So, lets explore many thesauri list these as synonyms for each other, so that helps to confuse us further in general, to assure is to lend confidence, to ensure is to confirm, and to insure is to indemnify as with an insurance policy and insure may have legal implications. Ensure means to make sure or to guarantee and insure refers to the financial service of insurance. She has worked in publishing for more than ten years as an editor, publicist, and brand director. Grammar can be confusing in any language and this is especially true of the english language. Choose from 171 different sets of grammar mistakes flashcards on quizlet. Three oftenconfused verbsassure, ensure, and insure all mean roughly to make secure or safe or certain. This was 30 years ago, in the united states, so its not a matter of being trendy or trying to sound british. Collective nouns like team making them agree one of my sisters recently got into a debate with coworkers over a grammar issue and emailed me to ask about it.
I would appreciate any light that you can shed on this. All three verbs have something to do with making sure and are therefore similar, but each of them has a distinct meaning. Insure this is for a photographic print an assure ensure insure reference. Let me assure you i can assure you that the children will be totally safe on this. Ensure is to do or have what is necessary for success.
Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. Learn english with lets talk free english lessons 148,934 views 7. Get grammar girls take on assure versus ensure versus insure. This print has a distressed look and modern font types. Assure, ensure, and insure are three words people sometimes confuse. Cnn announced it would be calling the coronavirus disease covid19 a pandemic even though the world health organization who and the u. Assure is to change feelings, ensure is to prevent bad things from happening, insure is to have a way to fix things if they go bad.
This listing is for a dark red print, but you can customize it to match your decor. Compare it versus grammar difference between assure vs ensure. Not only do these three words sound similar, they also make an outcome sure but they are in no way. The three words, assure, ensure, and insure, are often confused. It always grates on me when i see insure used where ensure would be a better fit. Here are six grammar rules that are going out of style. The girl is intelligent, the cat is running in the yard. The words assure, ensure, and insure are among the common terms that are often misused and interchanged.
Lastly, insure is a verb which means to secure or protect someone against a possible contingency or arrange for compensation in the event of damage to or loss of property, or injury to or the death of someone, in exchange for regular advance payments to a company or government agency. The easiest way to listen to podcasts on your iphone, ipad. Seriously, were glad that you and many of our weekly enewsletter readers and blog writers join us in finding grammar fun. Insure the three words, assure, ensure, and insure, are often confused. All three words share an element of making an outcome sure, and you can exchange these words with each other in some instances. All three words share an element of making an outcome sure. Only people can feel anxious or doubtful only they can be assured. There are many words that sound the same or even look the same, but these words are used in entirely different contexts as they have entirely different meanings. Ensure to make sure that something is definite andor it will happen, to guarantee. Is is the form of a verb to be that is used for singular nouns, while are is the form used for plural nouns so far, everything is pretty obvious. If you insure him, then youre taking out a policy on his life.
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