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Council and counsel are pronounced the same but have distinct meanings, while the confusingly similar consul is pronounced differently and has a different meaning as well.
counsel (noun)
counsel (verb)
in house counsel
opposing counsel
council
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.
Hello, my name is Angelique Vega and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week.
Today I'll be talking about “council” versus “counsel” versus “consul”.
The first two words are pronounced the same but have distinct meanings.
The first one, “council”, is a body serving in an administrative capacity.
The second, “counsel”, is a noun and a verb. The noun is a lawyer who pleads his case in court and the verb is to give advice.
The last term is pronounced “consul” and is a diplomat appointed by a government to protect its commercial interests and help its citizens in a foreign country.
Now, “council”, the first one that we have here, is a noun and in its most common sense is an assembly of persons convened for deliberation or the like. It's generally used with a singular verb. A member of such a group is a councillor.
“Counsel” is both a noun and a verb and its most common meaning as a noun is advice given to another – "his counsel on domestic relations is sound". A person giving such advice is a counsellor. In law, “counsel” means legal advisor or advisors and can be either singular or plural. As a verb, “counsel” means to give advice, to advise.
“Consul”, means as I said before, someone who is appointed to protect the interests of a nation’s citizens while in a foreign country and is usually a diplomat. And it's pronounced differently than the first two. It's “consul”.
Thank you for watching. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the box below. Goodbye.
Useful lesson and a great tutor!
Thank you very much
council – counsel – consul
Thank you.
Councillor and counsellor are really often confused.