Assure vs Ensure | Reassure a Person or Secure a Result?
Both words suggest certainty, but the certainty goes in a different direction. Choose assure when a person or group receives reassurance or a confident message. Choose ensure when an action makes a result, condition, process or outcome certain.
Secure a result, condition or process = ensure
Choose assure
Use assure when someone receives reassurance. The receiver is often a customer, client, employee, passenger, applicant, visitor or investor, as in assure the client or assure employees that ...
Choose ensure
Use ensure when an action makes something certain. Common results include accuracy, safety, quality, compliance, delivery, availability, completion and the successful operation of a process.
Find the receiver anchor
Do not choose from sound or formality. Identify what receives the action: a person receiving reassurance, or a result being made certain.
The account manager wanted to calm the concerned client, so she called to ___ him that the replacement order was already being processed.
Answer: assureThe account manager wanted to calm the concerned client, is the anchor. A concerned client receives reassurance, so the sentence needs assure.
To prevent billing errors, the finance team will review every entry twice to ___ the accuracy of the final invoice.
Answer: ensureTo prevent billing errors, is the anchor. The repeated review secures an accurate result, so the sentence needs ensure.
The drill contains 2 untimed Warm-Up questions, 5 timed Anchor Drill questions and 5 timed New Context questions.
What your result shows
Your result shows whether you can separate reassurance given to a person or group from an action that makes a result certain under time pressure. In Review, check the receiver anchor rather than treating both words as a general form of “make sure”.
If you missed assure
Find the person or group receiving the message. Look for a customer, client, employee, passenger, applicant, visitor or investor who is being reassured or given a confident statement.
If you missed ensure
Find the result or condition that must become certain. Common targets include accuracy, safety, quality, compliance, delivery, availability, completion and reliable operation.
If a person distracted you
A person appearing somewhere in the sentence does not automatically mean assure. Ask whether that person receives reassurance, or whether the action still secures a result.
Use Review in this order: check the correct answer, find the controlling receiver anchor, decide reassure a person versus secure a result, and then read the reusable pattern.