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Compliment vs. Complement

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:21 am
by Ed
Writers,

Please note the difference between the words "compliment" and "complement." A compliment is something you say when your friend she has nice shoes. When a thing complements another thing, the second thing isn't attempting to flatter the first thing. When thing 2 complements thing 1, it means thing 2 goes well with thing 1 or makes up for a deficiency that thing 1 has. When you are using the word in this sense, "compliment" is incorrect. A great explanation can be found here:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/complement.html

Thanks,
Ed

Re: Compliment vs. Complement

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:13 am
by Debbi
All this talk of Thing 1 and Thing 2 made me think of The Cat in the Hat! Gah, anything to distract me from working......