CHOOSE YOUR WORDS

There are a lot of words in English that look or sound alike but have very different meanings. It’s easy to get them confused and most electronic spellcheckers won’t be much help in this type of situation: they can tell you if a word has been spelled wrongly but they can’t generally flag up the misuse of a correctly spelled word. Here are pairs of words that regularly cause people problems:

Appraise or Apprise

The verbs appraise and apprise can be easily confused.

Appraise means ‘assess (someone or something)’, as in:

There is a need to appraise current practices.

Appraise is also commonly used in relation to ‘value’, as in:

He had the stamp collection appraised by an expert.

 Apprise means ‘inform (someone)’ and is often used in the sense of apprising someone of something, as in:

The police were apprised of the situation.

 

Assume or Presume

Both assume and presume can mean ‘suppose’ and are often interchangeable in this meaning.

However, technically there is a subtle difference between the two where presume is to ‘suppose to be the case on the basis of probability’:

Two of the journalists went missing and are presumed dead.

Assume on the other hand is to ‘suppose to be the case without proof’:

I just assumed it to be the case.

Both words also share other meanings that can be summarised as ‘to take on oneself’. In this sense assume is generally used to describe taking on a role:

I assumed the role of the aggressor in the conversation.

Whereas presume is generally used when taking on an attitude:

He had presumed too great a level of familiarity.

CHOOSE YOUR WORDS

There are a lot of words in English that look or sound alike but have very different meanings. Its easy to get them confused and most electronic spellcheckers wont be much help in this type of situation: they can tell you if a word has been spelled wrongly but they cant generally flag up the misuse of a correctly spelled word. Here are pairs of words that regularly cause people problems:

Appraise or Apprise The verbs appraise and apprise can be easily confused. Appraise means assess (someone or something), as in: There is a need to appraise current practices. Appraise is also commonly used in relation to value, as in: He had the stamp collection appraised by an expert. Apprise means inform (someone) and is often used in the sense of apprising someone of something, as in: The police were apprised of the situation. Assume or Presume Both assume and presume can mean suppose and are often interchangeable in this meaning. However, technically there is a subtle difference between the two where presume is to suppose to be the case on the basis of probability: Two of the journalists went missing and are presumed dead. Assume on the other hand is to suppose to be the case without proof: I just assumed it to be the case. Both words also share other meanings that can be summarised as to take on oneself. In this sense assume is generally used to describe taking on a role: I assumed the role of the aggressor in the conversation. Whereas presume is generally used when taking on an attitude: He had presumed too great a level of familiarity.