I just now started a thread that ended with the sentence, "Enquiring minds want to know."

When writing that I realized that I don't know whether it should be enquire or inquire. What is the distinction?

In American English there is none, I understand.

In British English inquire is usually (but not always) reserved for an official investigation of some sort. There would be an official inquiry into a plane crash, for instance.

See World Wide Words.

It was discussed here before.

I would say INquiring minds...(in the UK)

in the US, you seem to say insure where we would say ensure, too. Eg. please insure the door is locked is fine in the US, but the only thing we insure is cars & houses! xx

Quoth hepburn,

quote:

please insure the door is locked is fine in the US

I've spent most of my 75 years somewhere in the USA and have never yet heard "insure" used that way so where you heard it must be in territory that I have not yet explored. Can you tell us the location ? Or can you tell us which insurance company is best for a comprehensive policy on locked doors?

(( "Make sure" is the way we speakers of General American Dialect express the thought in question. ))

Jerry was being funny...but I do think he is right. Most Americans (I think!) use insure for insurance, but ensure means to "make certain."

I disagree- I remember this quite clearly from a trip to LA, California (ha!), where this was posted in the changing rooms:
'Please insure the door is locked and that you have all your belongings before you leave'. I remember getting very worked up about the use of 'insure'...and I saw it in more than one place...
Maybe it'a a newer usage trying to sneak its way in- or maybe it's an LA thing LOL...

Seems that AHD deems it acceptable:

quote:

Assure, ensure, and insure all mean “to make secure or certain.” Only assure is used with reference to a person in the sense of “to set the mind at rest”: assured the leader of his loyalty. Although ensure and insure are generally interchangeable, only insure is now widely used in American English in the commercial sense of “to guarantee persons or property against risk.”

The perscriptivist in me cringes.

In the UK the insurance industry terms "insurance" and "assurance" have distinct meanings.

Insurance is cover against a risk that may, or may not, be realised. You will insure your baggage against possible loss when you're on holiday although you do not know whether it will happen.

Assurance is used in respect of cover for an event that will definitely happen, although its exact timing may not be known. This is the usual name for life cover, known as life assurance. We will all eventually stop working and will all die and the assurance makes financial and other provision for that occurrance when it happens.

The insurance companies calculate their premiums on the expectation that policyholders will live long enough to have paid in more in premiums than the companies eventually pay out in benefits.