Professional Editor's Corner: This or That? Take 2
1. Aggravate or Annoy
To aggravate is to make worse or more severe. To annoy is to bother.
If we hug her and tell her how sorry we are, we’ll just aggravate her loss.
You annoy me when you jump on the bed while I’m studying.
2. Attain or obtain
To attain is to get through hard work or reach (through age or time). To obtain is more generally to lay hands on.
I attain a goal. I attained a living wage. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has attained cult status.
I obtain a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. A researcher obtains consent before interviewing participants.
3. Compliment or complement
To compliment is to praise. To complement is to complete, that is, to add to something so that the something is ‘perfect.’
My supervisor complimented me on my ability to capture and hold students’ attention through humor.
AP U.S. History complements Honors American Literature because the lion’s share of authors that students read (in American Literature) wrote in response to historical events occurring at the time.
4. Comprise or Compose
To comprise means to be made up of (parts). To compose means to make up or form (a whole).
The whole comprises the parts.
The United Nations Security Council comprises the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China.
The parts compose the whole.
The president and the cabinet, the judiciary, and the Congress compose the U.S. government.
5. Ensure or assure
To ensure means to make sure something happens. To assure means to give confidence to or remove doubt.
Accountability in education theoretically ensures that all students receive a ‘good’ education, one that will prepare them to succeed in college and the professional world.
The senator assured her constituents she would pass bills to create jobs.
5. Each other or one another
We use each other when we’re talking about two people and one another when we’re talking about more than two people.
The newly married husband and wife promised to love and support each other through thick and thin.
Humans should show greater respect for one another.
5. Economic or economical
Economic means of or relating to the production, distribution, and use of income, wealth, and commodities. Economical means thrifty (not wasteful).
The federal economic stimulus policy involved lowering interest rates and increasing federal spending.
My friend is so economical that she can eat three nutritious meals a day all month long with a food budget of only $90.
6. Epidemic or endemic or pandemic
An epidemic breaks out suddenly, spreads quickly in some limited area (city or state), and eventually subsides.
A phenomenon we would describe as endemic is one that continually recurs in one locality or region or among a certain group of people.
A pandemic is an epidemic that affects a much larger region (a nation, a continent, or the whole world).
Note: We can use epidemic and pandemic as adjectives OR nouns. Endemic is ONLY an adjective.
In 1974, a smallpox epidemic hit Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal (in India), causing the deaths of 15,000 people.
Malaria is endemic to tropical regions.
Thirty-nine million people have died since the HIV/AIDS pandemic began, and thirty-five million are living with HIV today. All told, this has affected one percent of our current world population.