I've had this discussion with a few people .... I have always been under the impression that to spell practice like this is a noun and that practise is the verb. Some have disagreed with this understanding. I looked it up.
From the Oxford Dictionary site:
practice - noun
Do not confuse practice with practise. Practice is a noun meaning 'the action of doing something rather than the theories about it' (putting policy into practice), whereas practise is a verb meaning 'do something repeatedly to improve your skill' (they were practising for the Olympics). In American English, both the noun and the verb are spelled practice.
I've always said, as an example to help to remember, to make it match advice (noun) and advise (verb) .... same spelling, same part of speech, different pronunciation, but still a good guide as to which practice to use.
Well, I hadn't posted for a while and I was feeling teacher-ish.
Here endeth the lesson.
This weekend I am going to Birmingham. It's a clever little trick. I have a meeting there on Monday for which I get travelling expenses. So I am using the free journey to spend the weekend with Ruth and Matt before the meeting. It will be good to spend time with them. Very cool. They have been busy doing up their front room ... well, so far knocking it to bits I think. I'm looking forward to seeing the partial transformation.
Well, there, that was a boring post.
We had nice curry for tea too.
Louise finally has her broadband from TalkTalk .... it was only 3 months later than they promised. She wasn't impressed. Still nice that it has finally arrived.
Erm .... still no job. Another 3 applications in, but I'm no longer holding my breath.
I'll try to do better next time.
Thanks for this! I was confused between the two variations of that word. Thanks again!
Posted by: Mrsaxobeat | February 11, 2012 at 01:48
We have just taken down a huge poster with a mis-spelling (suite instead of suit) but thought I'd check on another word - practice - and sure enough your blog popped up in Google. I like the advice/advise hint.
Organise and organize is another tricky one.
There is an army of us pedants out here trying to slow down the rate of decay of the english language - don't get me started on the misuse of the word amount (as in a huge amount of us pedants out here)
Posted by: Jimbo | March 15, 2012 at 09:53