Advise vs Advice

The English language has a lot of words that can be quite confusing. Some words may sound the same and may also have similar spellings yet, they mean different from each other. Take these two words for example – “Advise” and “Advice”.

The two have the same pronunciation but only differ in a single letter of the same position. “Advise” and “Advice” are actually related to each other but the main distinction between them is the way to use them in a sentence. They belong in different parts of speech.

Both words share the same etymology. They both came from an old French word “avys” which means “opinion”. It originally came from the phrase “ce m’est à vis” which means, “it seems to me” or “in my view”. The phrase is usually used just before one has to express his or her opinion about something perceived. The very root of the word is “vis” meaning “to see”

Spanish Portuguese version of the word is “aviso” and it is “avviso” in Italian. The letter “d” was added to the word based on the model of Latin language where the prefix “ad” is always used to often indicate direction or position. This happened in the 15th century English language. By that time, it became “advys” or “advyse” with the long “y” pronunciation. So basically, it started from “vis or avis”, to “avys”, to “advys or advyse”, which eventually became “advise” during early modern English.

At some point in time, before the 18th century, the word “advise” as a noun and as a verb will hold the same meaning. The similar spelling can be used in two different parts of speech. For some reason, scholars substituted “c” for “s” to distinguish the verb from the noun. Therefore, “advise” will be used as a verb and “advice” will be used as noun.

Example:

I advise you to take my advice.

Summary:

1. “Advise” is used as a verb and “advice” is used as a noun.
2. The word “Advise” came first than the word “advice”.