| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Which do you usually use |
| Inquire |
|
40% |
[ 4 ] |
| Enquire |
|
50% |
[ 5 ] |
| Don't know - never thought about it before... |
|
10% |
[ 1 ] |
|
| Total Votes : 10 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
 Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:52 pm Post subject: Do you have a tendency to use inquiry or enquiry? |
 |
|
| Just enquiring... |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I'm surprised that Brit spelling is still so flexible on so many words. (According to Merriam Webster, "enquire" is a Brit variant on "inquire") |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
I thought the 'e' was an antiquated use that only philosophy and The National Enquirer still were perpetuating.
Whatever. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
Off the top of my head, enquire is derived from French and inquire is the Latin version. But they are just 2 variations on the same word, and are interchangeable.
Inquiry is used more often in formal contexts, I think. As in "There will be a police inquiry." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 4:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
According to my Oxford Dictionary and Longman Dictionary, the two words have different meanings.
Enquire - simply to ask.
Inquire - requires physical search for an answer.
If I just want to ask a question, I enquire. For example: I am enquiring after her health.
If I am a detective, I would be making inquiries. I.e. go out and search for facts. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
That's interesting Tze. You've just prompted me to google up more information about it.
http://www.allwords.com/word-inquire,%20enquire.html
| Quote: |
| Inquire and enquire are to a great extent interchangeable variants. Inquire is used more than enquire, especially in formal writing such as reports, with reference to formal or systematic investigating. The distinction is more apparent in the nouns enquiry and inquiry. |
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/enquire.html
| Quote: |
| These are alternative spellings of the same word. �Enquire� is perhaps slightly more common in the U.K., but either is acceptable in the U.S. |
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/usage/enquire
| Quote: |
| The traditional distinction between enquire and inquire is that enquire is to be used for general senses of 'ask', while inquire is reserved for uses meaning 'make a formal investigation'. In practice, however, enquire (and enquiry) is more common in British English while inquire (and inquiry) is more common in US English, but otherwise there is little discernible distinction in the way the words are used. |
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0082012.html
| Quote: |
| This word can be spelled either way, although the tendency is to use enquire when asking for information, and inquire when conducting an investigation. |
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page22.shtml
| Quote: |
There is a very simple answer here - there is no difference in meaning. The spelling with 'e' is British, the spelling with 'i' is North American. The same goes for the nouns, 'inquiry' and 'enquiry'.
|
Big_Bird says: I disagree with the above answer. He makes it sound as if enquire is British and inquire is American, but the British use inquire regularly, and at least one site claims enquire is not necessarily wrong in American English either.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-enq1.htm
| Quote: |
[Q] From Barry Shandling, Toronto: �In your issue of 23 April you wrote �Earnest enquirers wish to know.� The Latin for �he said� is inquit. Hence it always seems correct to me to use the English inquired rather than enquired. How say you?�
[A] As you might guess, I rather disagree.
Arguments from etymology are always hard to justify, because there are many thousands of examples of words that have shifted sense or spelling since they arrived in English. Language is as language does: if native speakers choose to change words or the way they use them, that�s something we just have to accept. Then there�s the difficulty of defining what you mean by �correct�, since usage can vary a lot between various communities of speakers, each of which will firmly assert that their own way of doing things is right.
This one�s particularly awkward, for both these reasons. The Latin origin is the verb inquirere (based on quaerere, to ask or seek, which is also the source of query). However, the first examples of the English verb � in the thirteenth century � began with en-, or even sometimes an-. This is because the prefix became changed in its passage into English; it arrived via Old French, in which the word was enquerre (modern French has enqu�rir). Educated people in the fifteenth century began to be persuaded under the influence of Latin that it really ought to be spelled inquire, not enquire. But educated opinion didn�t prevail, and the two forms have continued in use in parallel in British English, roughly in equal frequencies, down to the present day.
However, in recent times British people have developed a difference of meaning between the two forms. Enquire tends to be used for general senses of �ask� (I might enquire after your health, or enquire about some fact or other), while inquire implies a formal investigation (as in the legal forum called a public inquiry). But this isn�t absolute by any means, and British English is being influenced by American English, in which inquire and inquiry have long been the standard forms (though the en- forms are not entirely unknown even there, albeit in rather formal situations; also enquiry is relatively more common than enquire). Australian English stands in much the same position as British English and is subject to the same forces. Canadian English, as so often, is split between American and British styles, though tending towards the former. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:56 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yes. What I said.
I follow the rule, really.
If I simply want to ask, I enquire. If I want to go out to find some physical evidence, I inquire - in this sense, the metro police are right to use the *inquire* when they investigate, cos that's exactly what they do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
I can't recall the last time (or any time) I've used enquiry in a sentence.
The Dictionary versus Common usage: An Age Old Battle For Supremacy  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Alyallen wrote: |
I can't recall the last time (or any time) I've used enquiry in a sentence.
The Dictionary versus Common usage: An Age Old Battle For Supremacy |
Americans tend not to use enquiry. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jinks
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Location: Formerly: Lower North Island
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Like Tzechuk said:
The pronunciation is the same (hence differing interpretations on which spelling is correct), but there are two different usages. Enquire is used for informal questions that can be easily answered (think bus or train schedules), and inquire is used for an official line of questioning (think inquest). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
