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Advise and advice are among the most commonly confused words in English. In fact, many people do not realize that there is a difference in both usage and meaning between "advice" and "advise".
advice
advise
More information on the words discussed in the video, including sound files, examples of usage, common mistakes and encyclopaedic information, can be found in TransLegal's Legal English Dictionary.
Hi, my name is Angelique Vega and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week.
Today we're going to be discussing the difference between “advise” and “advice”.
They are amongst the most commonly misused words in English. Most people don't realize that there is a difference between “advice” with a 'C', and spelled as above and “advise” with an 'S'. It sounds a little bit like a ‘Z’ but it is spelled with an S. “Advice”, on top, is a noun. It's a recommendation. For example, here are some sentences:
"His advice was sound."
"I am seeking your advice."
"Take my advice."
"I turned down that job on your advice."
“Advise”, on the other hand, is a verb. It refers to the act of giving advice. So, for example:
"I would advise you to listen to your superiors."
"My lawyer has advised me to settle this matter out of court.”
"I would advise you to listen to your teachers."
"I am advising three students for their theses."
That is the difference between the two words.
Again, for non-native English speakers I urge you to particularly pay attention. It's a subtle difference when you hear the two words – “advise” sounds a bit like ‘Z’, spelled with an ‘S’. “Advice” is just the ‘C’. Those two differences sometimes are very subtle and when somebody is speaking English quite quickly you may not get it, but if it's written down make sure you know that “advice” is the noun and “advise” is the verb.
Thank you for today. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below in the comment box. Thank you.
I am a non-native speaker, but before retiring I was a teacher of legal English at a School of Law , Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Translating these two words into Slovak also helped – as some students do not like grammar so much – stressing the difference in grammar together with translating the words was probably the best solution for some of my students
But I liked the video and the use of sample sentences.
was it absolutely necessary to split the infinitive “I urge you to particularly pay attention….”?
Dear Angelique,
I receive this newsletter every week for quite some time. I am an in house legal advicer in Bucharest, Romania
Indeed, this mistake with advice and advise is a very common mistake. Thank you for clarifying it.
All the best and looking forward your e-mails.
Lavinia