Dec 20 2007
Compliment or Complement?
The two words – compliment and complement – may look like twins, but they have completely different meanings. The difference between them is tiny: one has an “i” between the “l” and “m” while the other sports an “e.”
Which of the following blanks would you fill in with “compliment” and which with “complement”?
___________ means to complete.
___________ means to say something nice.
If you put “compliment” with an “i” in the first blank and “complement” with an “e” in the second blank, you’re absolutely … wrong. It should be …
“Complement” means to complete.
“Compliment” means to say something nice.
Here are a some examples:
- Fred gave me a compliment when he said I look younger than my age.
- The flowers were the perfect complement to the candlelight dinner.
- Thank you for the compliment. Yes, we do complement each other quite well.
There’s a terribly easy way to remember which is which. Simply associate the “i” in “compliment” with the “i” in “nice.” Or, you could associate the “e” in “complement” with the two “e’s” in “complete.” You only need to remember one of those rules because if it doesn’t conform to the rule you’ve committed to memory, it has to be the other form of the word by default.
PS. Take your writing skills to a new level. Check out the real-world writing e-books now available for immediate download. Click here.
This is great! Another one, like compliment/complement, I always get backwards is “then” and “than”. I think I usually get it right, but it requires a bit of a trip back to elementary grammar.