What about the difference between ‘assure’ and ‘ensure’?
In AmE, ‘insure’ doesn’t just mean ‘to protect yourself against risk by regularly paying a special company that will provide a fixed amount of money if you are killed or injured or if your home or possessions are damaged, destroyed or stolen’, but it can also mean ‘to make something certain to happen’, right?
‘Insure’ and ‘ensure’ are pronounced identically, aren’t they? So what is the correct pronunciation of them in BrE and AmE?
(Here is what I found in the Cambridge Dictionary:
And here is what I found in the Longman Dictionary:
Thus I’m so confused… +_+
Please shed some light on this.
ensurance is a form of the word ensure, but it is not commonly used that way. In fact, the word ensurance is not even in the dictionary.
The best we can tell through researching this, it’s a word that was utterly made up in the 1990’s by a web-based company called ensurance.com as a way to identify “electronic insurance” much the same way we use the word email to signify “electronic mail.”
Assurance is the correct word you are looking for when trying to use correct English grammer. Ensurance would not be the correct use of English grammer.
I hope this helps differentiate the two words for you.
“assurance” is something you may give: I can assure you that my dog bites!
“insurance” is something you may buy: I would like to buy insurance for my car.
“ensurance” is a web based insurance company: I just saved 15% on car insurance at ensurance.com today!
How people can mix these words up, I’ll never understand.
That’s a very clear concise definition.
The exception is that ‘assurance’ can be bought in one context too.
One buys Contents insurance, Property insurance. Car insurance, Pet insurance, etc… one insures against certain events
However, traditionally one would buy ‘life assurance’, not ‘life insurance’ - because death is (still) a certainty. You cannot ‘insure’ against it taking place. You can only ‘assure’ certain conditions are met.
I notice that as the language evolves this boundary is not so well defined any more and companies now offer ‘life insurance’ too.
Really? I’d have thought they mix them up because the root words ‘insure’, ‘assure’ and ‘ensure’ (ensure - make certain of) have similar sounds and meanings. Perhaps a little more empathy would be useful.