For the English Language masters...
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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."
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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."
I like your Confidence! :-D
------------------------------------ I try to appear cooler, by calling him Euler.
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I like your Confidence! :-D
------------------------------------ I try to appear cooler, by calling him Euler.
I like your praise!
"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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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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Use "make sure" instead of "ensure". That way you'll never go wrong and you don't have to remember all those prefixes. Example:
int i, e; i = i; // make sure that i is i e = e; // ... and e is e:)Well, that doesn't fit into my way of naming functions:
MakeSureXYZ()would in my world mean that aSureXYZobject will be somehow "made" by that function, whereasEnsureXYZ()cannot be misunderstood. :)-- 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
You are correct sir.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
You are correct sir.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Gosh! I'm flabbergasted! I've never been "sir"-ed before... :rolleyes:
-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
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Well, that doesn't fit into my way of naming functions:
MakeSureXYZ()would in my world mean that aSureXYZobject will be somehow "made" by that function, whereasEnsureXYZ()cannot be misunderstood. :)-- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel
