Week 7 - "Word-for-word" Confusion

This week we're going to start a short series on words that confuse lots of people, often because they're similar to, or at least closely related to, other words. Here's a good example:

Less vs. fewer

Since our office is smaller now, there are less people to talk to about problems that come up.

The problem here is with the word "less," which should only be used if the noun it modifies is singular (and "people" is plural). The sentence should be

Since our office is smaller now, there are fewer people to talk to....

When the noun is singular, using "less" is correct:

I have less trouble getting distracted, now that there are fewer people in our office.

Here's a closely related "word-for-word" problem:

Amount vs. number

Dawn has a daunting amount of proposals stacked on her desk.

The problem with this one is just like "less" vs. "fewer," in that "amount" is used only when the noun it describes is singular, and "number" is used when the noun is plural:

Because of the daunting number of proposals on Dawn's desk, she has a huge amount of work ahead of her.


Here's another one of my favorites:

Ensure, insure, and assure:

Let's get the easy one out of the way first:

I need to insure this package in case something happens to it in transit.

"Insure," as you can see from the correct usage in the previous sentence, is used when you're making a contribution to the construction of a tall office building in Hartford, Connecticut.

I assure you that I will insure the package.

"Assure" is used when you're trying to make someone feel better, and it takes a direct object that's a person ("you" in the previous sentence).

So the object of "insure" is a thing, and the object of "assure" is a person. What about "ensure?"

Like "insure," "ensure" can take a direct object, as in

To ensure our survival, we need to watch out for tigers.

We won't get confused between "insure" and "ensure," since there aren't many tigers in Hartford, but there's another usage for "ensure," when it's followed by a clause instead of a simple noun, that people find difficult:

To ensure that we're covered in case of loss, I've insured the package, as I assured you previously.

The last sentence is great, but a common mistake is that people have started leaving out the "that:"

I want to ensure we're going to be covered in the event of a loss.

This sentence is wrong -- unless it has a simple noun as a direct object, "ensure" should always be followed by "that," as in

To ensure that we have a big enough audience, we need to work harder on the publicity.


Let's do one more:

Comprise vs. compose

The book was comprised of ten chapters.

This incorrect usage of the deservedly obscure verb "comprise" shows up all the time. One way to get around the problem is to avoid "comprise" entirely, as in

There are ten chapters in the book.

But if you insist on using a "com..." word, there are two correct solutions:

The book is composed of ten chapters, and

The book comprises ten chapters.

"Comprises" means "consists of," so "is comprised of" is equivalent to saying "consists of of," which is nonsense.

Thanks for listening. More fun next week!