eco edits

Some of you may remember Sure Deodorant’s commercial campaign from the early 1990′s. In case you need a refresher, here’s a taste:

My brother and I loved standing in front of the TV raising and lowering our arms, laughing as people realized they were “unsure.” 

It seems that people are, well, sure of how to use the word “sure.” However, the second you add any sort of prefix to it, is where the confidence ends and the confusion begins. 

Many people use the words assure, insure, and ensure interchangeably. Even after reading this article, you still might argue that you can use insure and ensure to mean the same thing, although many (including myself) would disagree. 

Let’s start with the basics: 

Assure: to remove someone’s doubts

Insure: to cover something or someone with insurance

Ensure: to guarantee that something will happen

How to Use Each in a Sentence:

Assure can be used in relation to a person or an animal. A person or animal can have doubts or issues that you can fix. 

Examples:

I assure you, the road will be fixed on time. 

He shut the refrigerator, assuring the dog wouldn’t get the food inside. 

Each of these is a statement to make a person feel better or to assist in keeping an animal (and helping its humans keep their food secure).

Insure can be used in relation to a policy covering personal property in the event something goes wrong. 

Examples:

Beth purchased a policy to insure that her car is covered in case of an accident.

After my basement flooded, the insurance company said I didn’t have the proper coverage to insure against water damage. 

Each of these is a statement referencing insurance. It is easy to confuse insure with ensure because insurance feels like a guarantee that nothing bad will happen, when in fact, insuring something just means that you have the back-up and support in place in the event that something horrific does happen, like an accident or a fire. 

Ensure is a promise that what you want to occur will, based on circumstances and your actions. 

Examples:

The bride spoke to the minister to ensure the wedding went off without a hitch.

Tony needed to practice his jump shot to ensure his place on the varsity basketball team. 

Whenever I go somewhere, whether it be to a doctor’s appointment, to the local coffeeshop, or simply walking my dog around the block, I’ll inevitably bump into someone who smiles at me (I know, I live in a friendly place.) and says, “How are you doing today?” 

This is a loaded question. 

If I’m feeling particularly self-conscious of the fact that I’m a writer, I’ll respond, “I’m doing well,” but if I’m too tired or just feel like being more relaxed I’ll say, “I’m good.” 

If I go with the former, I feel like I’m being too formal, snobby, and a tad stuck-up. But if I go with the latter, then I’m opening myself up to self-hate and ridicule. Because, after I answer, I’ll always reciprocate the ask. And if the person responses with, “I’m well,” then I feel like a dummy who didn’t use English correctly, and I should walk through the streets naked with people throwing fruit at me and yelling, “Shame!” 

Why does it matter which way I answer? Why make a big deal of it? 

Let’s start with the basics. When to use these words: 

Good: (adjective) describes a job, aka a noun.

Well: (adverb) describes an action, aka a verb, and answers the question of how. 

Now let’s use them in a sentence: 

You had a good day. 

Good describes day, which is a noun, so good is an adjective. 

Your day went well. 

Well describes how the day went, so well is an adverb. 

This is where things get fuzzy. You might think, but I is a noun! Then shouldn’t that mean when someone asks “How are you?” that I should answer with, “ I am good”? 

In fact, when someone asks how you are, they are referring to your physical self. Think of the question as, “How is your body doing?” Since your answer reflects how you are doing, your response must describe the verb to do, so the correct response would be, “I am doing well.”