I would
be most grateful if you could tell me the difference between assurance
and insurance. I was told that we talk about life assurance
but property insurance. However, I have also heard that American
insurance companies talk about life insurance. Please help.
Roger
Woodham replies:
I will
start with the verbs from which these nouns are derived as they
are in more common use and then deal with the more specialist noun
forms second.
assure
- ensure - insure
If
you assure someone that something is true or will happen,
you tell them that it is definitely true or will happen, often in
order to make them less worried. We often use such phrases as I
can assure you or let me assure you in order to emphasise
the truth of what we are saying:
She
hastened to assure me that the report contained no critical
comment on my department's performance.
Let
me assure you / I can assure you that the children will be
totally safe on this adventure holiday. No risks of any kind will
be taken.
Ensure
is subtly different from assure and people often confuse
the two. If you ensure that something happens, you make certain
that it happens. A less formal equivalent of this verb in spoken
English would be make sure:
Ensure
/ Make sure that your working hours as well as your
rate of pay are written into your contract.
I
tried to ensure that everybody wore their life jackets the
whole time that we were on the sailing boats, but not everybody
carried out my instruction.
In
American English, ensure is sometimes spelt insure:
I
shall try to insure that you have a nice time while you are
here.
Insure
has another meaning, as you suggest, Betty. If you insure yourself
or your property, you pay money to an insurance company so that
if you become ill or if your property is stolen or damaged, the
company will pay you a sum of money:
We
can insure your car against fire, theft and third party
damage for as little as £30 per month.~
Make
sure you remember to insure the digital camera and the
mobile phones. They're not included under the house contents insurance.
Assurance
First
and foremost, assurance has the same meaning as assure. If
you give someone an assurance that something is true or will happen,
you say that it is definitely true or will definitely happen in
order to make them feel less worried:
He
sought an assurance from me that i'd always be available
on Saturdays to undertake the work.
I
was unable to give her any assurance that Beth would arrive
in time for the family re-union.
Secondly,
in British English we sometimes talk about life assurance
as an alternative to life insurance to describe the form
of insurance in which a person makes regular payments to an insurance
company in return for a sum of money which is paid to them after
a period of time or to their family if they die. Both terms are
freely used in British English:
As
we came down that hill, I thought we were going to die and I started
thinking about my life insurance / life assurance policies.
Insurance
is the term used to describe all other types of insurance:
That
car is not insured. The insurance expired at the
end of July and you haven't renewed it.
Note
that we cannot say ensurance. There is no noun which is derived
from ensure.
If
you would like more practice more please visit our in the You, Meand Us part of our
website.
