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Vollrath Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

insure vs. ensure

0The evaluation guide is used to 01b01i00insure02i02b00 that students are progressing at the appropriate level.02br
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00Arguments for "insure" and arguments for "ensure", please. Personally I think it should be "ensure" but I have someone who thinks they're smarter than me arguing for "insure" and I want to hear other people's opinions on this if you don't mind.02br
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00Best,02br
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00Vollrath02br
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Top answer

(I am afraid one day they will kindly ask me to leave:D) 02br 02br 01b 00ensure:verb02b 00 01b 00102b 00 make certain that (something) will occur or be so. 01b 00202b 00 (01b 00ensure against02b 00) make sure that (a problem) does not occur. 02br 02br 01b 00insure:02b 00 01b 00verb02b 00 01b 00102b 00 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.

— Doll

  • (I am afraid one day they will kindly ask me to leave:D) 02br 02br 01b 00ensure:verb02b 00 01b 00102b 00 make certain that (something) will occur or be so.
  • 01b 00202b 00 (01b 00ensure against02b 00) make sure that (a problem) does not occur.
  • 02br 02br 01b 00insure:02b 00 01b 00verb02b 00 01b 00102b 00 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.
  • 01b 00202b 00 secure the payment of (a sum) in this way.
  • 01b 00302b 00 (01b 00insure against02b 00) protect (someone) against (a possible eventuality).
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19 Answers
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0Hey Vollrath, no one is smarter than the others.Why don't you trust yourself?Look at me ,half of my answers are either wrong or half true but I feel very proud of myself because I know how to learn correct things from my mistakes.(I am afraid one day they will kindly ask me to leave:D) 02br
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01b00ensure:verb02b00 01b00102b00 ma
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0 Haha it's not that I don't trust myself (I'm sure I'm right) but I'm dealing with very stubborn people. 0-
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5000I see.010id2
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0 See my posting here:02br
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050040pid286935
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0 So they are interchangeable and my original sentence is correct? Sorry but it seems like "insure" shouldn't be used as such. Can you elucidate? 0-
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0bump..02br
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00more input, please0-
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0It's definitely "ensure". 02br
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01b01i00While both these words can be verbs, insure is to take out a policy. Ensure is to make sure something happens.02i02b02br
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01b01i00Lazy language users and linguists will argue that this matters not, that they are interchangeable because they mean nearl
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I was just looking up correct usage because I run into this a lot when reviewing or grading papers. I agree with the last post - I always thought that "insure" should be to arrange for compensation, etc. while "ensure" means to make sure of something. However, according to Merriam-Webster (online) they are indeed synonymous. I personally don't like to use them interchangeably - I think each ha
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Volrath:
English is always changing, and some words are very confusing. In these cases, I try to discover secrets in the etymology. For example:

insure

c.1440, variant of ensuren (see /browse/ensure). Took on its particu
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The original purpose of insurance was not to receive compensation in the event x happens. It was to ensure that any leins against whatever property x happened to were payable to the lein holders. For example, I have a car on which I owe $10K to the bank. The bank holds a lein against whatever property I put up as collateral for that $10K (house, maybe?). I don't want to lose the collateral, s
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