For the English Language masters...
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So, I'm Swedish and have some difficulties to differ between "insure" and "ensure". When coding, I tend to use "ensure" as in the function
void EnsureProperState()and in the comment// Ensures that nothing bad will happen with bla bla bla.To me "insure" is about physical insurance, like "life insurance" or "vehicle insurance". Is there a more strict difference between them?-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
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So, I'm Swedish and have some difficulties to differ between "insure" and "ensure". When coding, I tend to use "ensure" as in the function
void EnsureProperState()and in the comment// Ensures that nothing bad will happen with bla bla bla.To me "insure" is about physical insurance, like "life insurance" or "vehicle insurance". Is there a more strict difference between them?-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
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So, I'm Swedish and have some difficulties to differ between "insure" and "ensure". When coding, I tend to use "ensure" as in the function
void EnsureProperState()and in the comment// Ensures that nothing bad will happen with bla bla bla.To me "insure" is about physical insurance, like "life insurance" or "vehicle insurance". Is there a more strict difference between them?-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
Ensure: make something certain: to make sure that something will happen Insure: cover something with insurance: to agree formally that, for a sum of money paid to a company, the company will pay compensation or costs if some specified harm or loss occurs to somebody or something You have it right. Encarta® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1999, 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
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Ensure: make something certain: to make sure that something will happen Insure: cover something with insurance: to agree formally that, for a sum of money paid to a company, the company will pay compensation or costs if some specified harm or loss occurs to somebody or something You have it right. Encarta® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1999, 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
I have a similar concern. We normally tend to trip over the words that have a i and e in them like in Achieve and Believe. There is a very common tendency in many people that the i and e are swapped of their positions. The former two have i first and e second whilst in their, it is the reverse case. Are there any guidance for such spellings? This should be a global phenomenon since Microsoft Word AutoCorrect has these as builtin corrections in it.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson -
I have a similar concern. We normally tend to trip over the words that have a i and e in them like in Achieve and Believe. There is a very common tendency in many people that the i and e are swapped of their positions. The former two have i first and e second whilst in their, it is the reverse case. Are there any guidance for such spellings? This should be a global phenomenon since Microsoft Word AutoCorrect has these as builtin corrections in it.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson -
I have a similar concern. We normally tend to trip over the words that have a i and e in them like in Achieve and Believe. There is a very common tendency in many people that the i and e are swapped of their positions. The former two have i first and e second whilst in their, it is the reverse case. Are there any guidance for such spellings? This should be a global phenomenon since Microsoft Word AutoCorrect has these as builtin corrections in it.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis LevinsonI've never personally needed to learn any rules about this - I've always been right on instinct ever since I was very little. However, this looks like it knows what it's talking about.[^] At the end, it says, "Use i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither."
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
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I have a similar concern. We normally tend to trip over the words that have a i and e in them like in Achieve and Believe. There is a very common tendency in many people that the i and e are swapped of their positions. The former two have i first and e second whilst in their, it is the reverse case. Are there any guidance for such spellings? This should be a global phenomenon since Microsoft Word AutoCorrect has these as builtin corrections in it.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis LevinsonThe general rule is 'i' before 'e' except after c. But don't use it as a strict rule, there are many exceptions. 'weird' is one of them :)
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Thank you.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson -
The general rule is 'i' before 'e' except after c. But don't use it as a strict rule, there are many exceptions. 'weird' is one of them :)
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
Thank you. :)
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson -
I've never personally needed to learn any rules about this - I've always been right on instinct ever since I was very little. However, this looks like it knows what it's talking about.[^] At the end, it says, "Use i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither."
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
I've always been right on instinct
:) Thank you.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson -
Thank you. :)
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis LevinsonHey no worries :)
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." Ali ibn Abi Talib "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"
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Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
I've always been right on instinct
:) Thank you.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis LevinsonRavel H Joyce wrote:
I've always been right on instincg
Vasudevan Deepak K wrote:
Thank you.
:confused:
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. - Cicero .·´¯`·->Rajesh<-·´¯`·. ...formerly known as brahmma Codeproject.com: Visual C++ MVP
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I've never personally needed to learn any rules about this - I've always been right on instinct ever since I was very little. However, this looks like it knows what it's talking about.[^] At the end, it says, "Use i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither."
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
I've never personally needed to learn any rules about this - I've always been right on instinct ever since I was very little.
Same here, and my family doesn't even speak English (except for my younger brother, but I don't speak English with him).
Cheers, Vikram.
"If a trend is truly global, then that trend ought to be visible across ANY subset of that data" - fat_boy
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Sadly this rule isn't sufficient either, to be honest, you could try in vein to work out standardised rules - The English language is somewhat weird and inconsistant, probably due to the kaleidoscopic way it's been merged from various sources, since ancient times most of our European neighbours have invaded at some point or other, and the language reflects that with many foreign influenced words. Science tends not to play by the rules either. You could probably do with some caffeine by now, I'm sure!
-- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!
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Sadly this rule isn't sufficient either, to be honest, you could try in vein to work out standardised rules - The English language is somewhat weird and inconsistant, probably due to the kaleidoscopic way it's been merged from various sources, since ancient times most of our European neighbours have invaded at some point or other, and the language reflects that with many foreign influenced words. Science tends not to play by the rules either. You could probably do with some caffeine by now, I'm sure!
-- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!
I'm pretty sure that you try 'in vain' rather than 'in vein' but a nice post to show some of the horrible inconsistencies in English! Gets my 5 :-)
It definitely isn't definatley
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So, I'm Swedish and have some difficulties to differ between "insure" and "ensure". When coding, I tend to use "ensure" as in the function
void EnsureProperState()and in the comment// Ensures that nothing bad will happen with bla bla bla.To me "insure" is about physical insurance, like "life insurance" or "vehicle insurance". Is there a more strict difference between them?-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
According to the Oxford English Dictionary: insure • verb 1 arrange for compensation in the event of damage to or loss of (property, life, or a person), in exchange for regular payments to a company. 2 secure the payment of (a sum) in this way. 3 (insure against) protect (someone) against (a possible eventuality). 4 another term for ENSURE. so technically you can use either. Personally, I would tend to use ensure to mean 'to make sure some has or will happen' and use insure as in term 1 of the above definition. Strangely, words starting in / en don't always have different meanings - enquire and inquire for example, both mean the same thing.
It definitely isn't definatley
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So, I'm Swedish and have some difficulties to differ between "insure" and "ensure". When coding, I tend to use "ensure" as in the function
void EnsureProperState()and in the comment// Ensures that nothing bad will happen with bla bla bla.To me "insure" is about physical insurance, like "life insurance" or "vehicle insurance". Is there a more strict difference between them?-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
You have it exactly. To Ensure means to guarantee something happens, to Insure is to guard against! That seems a bit trite, but your definition is absolutely correct.
------------------------------------ I try to appear cooler, by calling him Euler.
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I've never personally needed to learn any rules about this - I've always been right on instinct ever since I was very little. However, this looks like it knows what it's talking about.[^] At the end, it says, "Use i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither."
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
I've always been right on instinct
ALWAYS? Thats quite a boast, even Einstein said he was wrong once! (ok he was wrong when he mis-corrected what was already right about his special theory, he soon corrected it back :) )
------------------------------------ I try to appear cooler, by calling him Euler.
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Sadly this rule isn't sufficient either, to be honest, you could try in vein to work out standardised rules - The English language is somewhat weird and inconsistant, probably due to the kaleidoscopic way it's been merged from various sources, since ancient times most of our European neighbours have invaded at some point or other, and the language reflects that with many foreign influenced words. Science tends not to play by the rules either. You could probably do with some caffeine by now, I'm sure!
-- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!
benjymous wrote:
inconsistaent
:)
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Ravel H. Joyce wrote:
I've always been right on instinct
ALWAYS? Thats quite a boast, even Einstein said he was wrong once! (ok he was wrong when he mis-corrected what was already right about his special theory, he soon corrected it back :) )
------------------------------------ I try to appear cooler, by calling him Euler.
Yes, always. ;P
"What am I in the eyes of most people, a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."