Difference Between » Advise and Advice

Advise and Advice

The words advise and advice can sometimes be confused and, thus, used interchangeably, giving a sentence a completely different meaning. This article discusses the difference between advise and advice.

Both words advise and advice, apart from having a different meaning, are also different parts of speech. ‘Advise’ (with an S), on the one hand, is the verb, whereas ‘advice’ (with a C) is a noun. But when it comes to the usage, there is a relationship between these words. Just one letter is different in words ‘advise’ and ‘advice,’ making it easy to use the wrong word when framing the sentence. 

The main question here is how one can tell that both words ‘advise’ and ‘advice’ are different.

Advise

The word advise is referred to as a verb. It is pronounced with an ending sound like ‘ize.’ When it comes to the meaning of this particular word, it implies offering an opinion or suggestion or formally providing the information to the next person.

Advice

The word advice is referred to as a noun, and it is pronounced with an ending sound like ‘ice.’ When it comes to the meaning of this particular word, it implies an opinion or recommendation that is offered as a course of action.

Advise Vs. Advice: Using in the Sentence

Now that both ‘advise’ and ‘advice’ are nearly similar in the meaning but different when it comes to the part of speech, the easiest way to tell the difference between the both is learning the usage of ‘advise’ and ‘advice’ in the sentences.

Advise

Advise is referred to as a verb. So, one will always find it with the subject of the English sentence acting for advising about something. For example,

  • The doctor advised his patient not to take medicines without a prescription 
  • My father always advises me to bring a warm cost to the movie complex because air conditioning can be chilly
  • He needs to visit court and thus, needs me to advise him in this matter
  • The teacher will advise the students on how they can improve their performance
  • The manager will advise the client that the bill is past due
  • The couple asked the real estate agent to advise them on which apartment to rent

When it comes to the synonyms, the synonyms for ‘to advise’ are ‘to give suggestions,’ ‘to notify,’ ‘to encourage,’ ‘to direct,’ ‘to instruct,’ and ‘to counsel.’ 

Advice

Advice is referred to as a noun. So, this particular word will not be performing any action in the English sentence. Now that ‘advice’ is a non-countable noun, it is usually seen after the word ‘some’ or a possessive pronoun such as ‘my.’ Sometimes, one can also witness the expressions dividing the advice into units of measurement that further can be pluralized, like ‘words of advice’ or ‘piece of advice.’ For example,

  • The son carefully followed his father’s words of advice
  • Her mother gave her sound financial advice
  • He needs her advice on which bike to buy
  • He always gives me advice on my performance in sports
  • My father’s advice was always to follow your compassion and dreams
  • Always get home moving advice from professional movers

When it comes to the synonyms, the synonyms for ‘advice’ are ‘information’, ‘encouragement’, ‘instruction’, ‘counsel’, ‘guidance’, and ‘direction’.

Different forms of Advise

As a verb, ‘advise’ has different inflected forms- ‘advises’ for present tense, ‘advised’ for past tense, and ‘advising’ for present participle. Anyone doubting whether to use ‘advise’ or ‘advise’ whenever a verb is called for must remember that action is expressed by a verb, and ‘advise’ with an S is the verb expressing an action. ‘Advise’ is the word following ‘please’ when requesting information, guidance, or counselling. 

Different forms of Advice

When it comes to the word ‘advice’ there are no different forms of the same word. It occurs in only a plain form, ‘advise.’ The reason for this is that the particular word is a mass noun which implies that there is no plural form of ‘advice.’ However, the word starts with a vowel. It can’t be used with an indefinite article ‘an’. Moreover, ‘advice’ can be modified using an adjective, and it is often found in the common collocations like ‘to give/ offer, provide advice’ or ‘to follow advice.’ 

Conclusion

Although the meaning of both the words ‘advise’ and ‘advice’ is nearly similar, they are both from different parts of the speech, which is the main difference between them. On the one hand, ‘advise’ is a verb’ and on the other hand, ‘advice’ is a noun. Therefore, it is essential to learn the difference between these to construct grammatically correct sentences. To know more about the difference between ‘advise’ and ‘advice,’ consider going through the article mentioned above. 

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