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The terms damage and damages are often confused. The term damage describes injury or harm to property or a person, while damages means monetary compensation awarded by a court for the harm or injury that has been suffered.
damage
damages
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, this is Peter and welcome to TransLegal's Lesson of the Week.
Today we're going to be talking about damage and damages. This is a mistake or two terms that people mistake on a regular basis. In fact, I've just dealt with it this week, and I think the important distinction to start with is just definitions.
Damage is harm or injury to a person or property.
Damages are the monetary compensation awarded by a court for the damage.
So one classic example that many of you have probably heard of for damage or damages would be the infamous McDonald's hot coffee case in which Stella Liebeck spilled some hot coffee from McDonald's on her legs and she suffered third-degree or full-thickness burns to her skin and so this was the harm or injury to her person. She then sued McDonald's for damages. And that is the compensation that she wanted to make up for her harm or injury. The court awarded her damages to compensate her for the harm, the physical harm as well as the medical expenses that she had incurred in order to treat her injuries -- this is what was commonly referred to in the press as the two million dollar hot coffee case. Of course it wasn't actually that much in the end because the court reduced the jury's award. But in the end Stella Liebeck did receive monetary compensation, damages, for the harm incurred as a result of spilling the hot coffee on her legs.
So that's a short overview of the difference between damage and damages. If you have questions, as you might because this is pretty confusing, even for native English speakers, please, as always, leave your questions or comments in the comments section below and one of us will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks.
Thanks for all helpfull information you send me via email. I really appreciate it. Regards.
Brilliant series … keep it up! But first, a question: if the damage (injury) caused to someone or something is multiple, is it correct to speak of damages (i.e., injuries) where the context will indicate whether we are referring to injuries or compensation?
The words damage and damages are often misused and regularly confuse native speakers of English, including law students. And while you may encounter examples such as: “The fire caused €100,000 in damages.”, using damages to describe multiple injuries is incorrect. One suffers damage, but recovers damages.
Very helpful! Thank you!
I have the same question Alison Wiebalck has: if the damage (injury) caused to someone or something is multiple, is it correct to speak of damages?
Thanks again!
Sylvia, please my response to Alison’s question.
What is the answer to the question – multiple injuries = damages or is it wrong!
Ingrid, here’s the response I just posted:
The words damage and damages are often misused and regularly confuse native speakers of English, including law students. And while you may encounter examples such as: “The fire caused €100,000 in damages.”, using damages to describe multiple injuries is incorrect. One suffers damage, but recovers damages.
I love this source it’s very helpful, thanks for sharing.
I wanna know in the mc’donalds case, the cost for treating injuries were not supoused to be of millions why did the court award damages for such high amount?
Actually, the court substantially reduced the jury’s award, it just didn’t get the same amount of attention in the press.
Is ‘damage’ used to refer to multiple injuries as well then? Is it an uncountable noun? – thank you.
Yes, “damage” is used to refer to multiple injuries, making it an uncountable noun.
Peter, thank you for your answer.
Very interesting. An interesting example to present in a class. I learnt the new expression “full-thickness burns”.Am looking forward to the next “lesson”.
Thanks for this important lesson. Now I have learned the difference between Damage and Damages.
Thanks for this important lesson. I hope that you sending the next lesson. Congratulations
Thanks, Edgar. We’ll keep them coming. Let us know if you have any suggestions.
This lesson is really brilliant.
Thank you
Gian Pietro
Thank you, Peter. But then how does one explain the expression “mitigation of damages” when “damages” refers here to multiple “injuries”?
Good question, Alison. And no good answer. As you likely already know, Black’s Law dictionary uses this phrase.
As an ILEC Instructor in Buenos Aires, Argentina I´ve found this video inspiring and extremely useful for my legal English students since Peter is enlighting students with legal and language features of the terms while clearing them up in a friendly environment.
Tks, Peter and Translegal!!
I think the issue that Alison raises is a very good one. However much we may not like it, lawyers do sometimes use “damages” to mean multiple injuries/losses.
Although we might discourage our students from doing it – by rightly telling them that “damage” in this sense is an uncountable noun – they are likely to discover, sooner or later, that “damages” does sometimes have this special legal meaning, and this might lead to further confusion.
I advocate teaching it as an exception specific to legal language, which lawyers are likely to see, but which they should avoid using in their own writing. Lawyers are intelligent people – they should be able to get their heads round it!
The lesson is good indeed. However, as a Legal English instructor in Brazil, I find it fundamental to explain to students that ‘damage’ is an uncountable noun, just like milk, coffee or sugar, for instance. They must be able to distinguish between ‘damage’ and ‘damages’, in the legal world. So, when students come up with questions about using ‘damages’ to refer to multiple injuries, i do not encourage them to do so. Instead, I explain that they can say, for instance, “different types of damage were caused by the explosion”. In English, there are many uncountable words, just as there are in Portuguese, the difference being that, sometimes, the uncountable words are not the same. And damage is one of them. Another very common mistake for Portuguese speakers is the use of “information”. Uncountable in English, but countable in Portuguese. “Advice” is another one. Uncountable in English, but countable in Portuguese. Therefore, the distinction has always to be explained.
Another thing to have in mind is that ‘damage’ is also a verb, and, as a verb, it is inflected in the 3rd person singular with the morpheme ‘s’. For instance: “She damages everything she touches”. Meaning she breaks, she destroys, she causes harm. And that has to be highlighted as well.