Practice or Practise?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Practice or Practise?

There is often confusion over the words "practice" and "practise". I've always used the sentences - 'Please practice more!' or 'You need more practice!' in my student's progress book.. Where else I've seen most other teachers uses "practise" instead.
I did some checking and came up with these:

In order to understand which to use, you must know the difference between a noun and a verb. This is because "practice" is a noun; whereas, "practise" is a verb. "Ice" is a slippery thing, whereas "ise" is not a thing - so remember that practice is a thing and practise is a doing word.

A LITTLE TRICK TO SPOT "PRACTICE"
Try using the word "preparation" (or "lessons") instead of "practice". If the sentence still makes sense, then "practice" is almost certainly correct.
(This trick works because "practice" is a noun, just like the words "preparation" and "lessons". )

A LITTLE TRICK TO SPOT "PRACTISE"
Try using the verb "to prepare" (in its various forms; e.g. "preparing, prepared, prepares") instead of "practise". If the sentence still makes sense, then "practise" is almost certainly correct. However, if you find yourself using "preparation" then you should be using "practice", because both are nouns.
(This trick works because "to practise" is a verb, just like "to prepare". )

Examples:

• You need more practice. (Correct)
• You should practise more. (Correct)
• They practice in the office for 10 weeks and are then sent out. (Wrong)
• Keep practicing that stroke until the whistle blast. (Wrong)

So for me:

• Please practice more - Wrong
• You need more practice - Correct

Right? Haha.. I need grammer lessons...

Sources: Grammer-monster.com