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Advice and Advise

Two commonly confused words in the English language. When do you use each one? 

These two words have a very similar spelling, but they are pronounced differently.

Advice is pronounced with an "S" sound at the end.

Advise is pronounced with a "Z" sound at the end.

Advice

Advice is a noun. 

It talks about something someone tells you to do, because they think it is the best course of action.

When we have a problem, and we don't know what to do, we ask someone for their advice. We ask them what they thing is best for us to do.

Example:

You should talk to Laura. She always gives excellent advice.
(Laura always knows what to do. She will tell you what the best thing to do is).

Advise

Advise is a verb that means to give advice. 

This verb must always be followed by the person we are advising. In this way, it is just like the verb tell.

Example:

Michaela advises Janice to take a nice, long vacation.

If we want to say exactly what the advice was, we use to right after the listener's name, like in the example above.

Example:

The salesman advised the customer to buy the product.

Now that you know the difference between adivise and adivice, try the follow exercises.

Exercises

1 - If you need some __________about which courses to take, you can talk to the professors.
(The professors can give you helpful input about which courses are best to take).

2 - I didn't ask for his __________, but he told me what he thought anyway!
(I didn't want to know what he thought I should do, but he told me anyway).

3 - The experts __________ the president about complex situations.

(The experts give him advice about complicated situations).

4 - If you ask Donna, I'm sure she'll __________ you to report the problem.

(Donna will give you advice. She will tell you to report the problem).

5 - My ____________ is, always follow your heart!

(What I think you should do is, follow your heart).

Have a great week!