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Understanding the difference between commonly confused words will help you avoid making errors in English usage. Let’s examine the difference between the following:
This is a word pair that is very confusing to many people. Comprise is often used in place of compose, especially in the passive, as “is comprised of.” As we will see, however, this usage is not universally accepted and should be avoided by careful writers.
The traditional rule is that the whole comprises its parts, the whole is composed of its parts, or the parts compose the whole.
compose
Compose means to make up the substance of something, to constitute the whole. Compose can be used in the active or passive voice (is composed of).
The English alphabet is composed of twenty-six letters.
Twenty-six letters compose the English alphabet
A full deck is composed of fifty-two cards.
comprise
Comprise means to include, contain, consist of or be made up of. Comprise is best used only in the active voice. Some dictionaries allow comprise to be used as a loose synonym for compose, but this usage is not yet fully accepted by usage experts.
The English alphabet comprises twenty-six letters.
A full deck comprises fifty-two cards.
The apartment comprises six spacious rooms.
Strictly speaking, it is not correct to use comprise in the passive voice and say “is comprised of,” as in, “The English alphabet is comprised of 26 letters.” Opposition to this usage has been weakening in recent times, and in some quarters it is becoming increasingly acceptable. Many style guides, however, still consider “is comprised of” to be nonstandard or poor usage, so it’s recommended to stick with the traditional usage as described above and use comprise only in the active voice.
There is another problem with comprise. The traditional view is that it shouldn’t be used the other way around; that is, we shouldn’t say “Fifty-two cards comprise a full deck.” Again, opposition to this rule is becoming weaker as common usage of this construction grows stronger.
☛ Here’s a tip to help you remember the correct usage of these words: Recall that compose has an o following the p, and is the only one of this word pair that can be followed by the word of, which starts with o. Comprise has an i like its synonym include: you wouldn’t say “included of,” so don’t say “comprised of.”
If you can substitute the word contains for comprises in a sentence, you’re probably using the latter correctly.
The apartment comprises [or contains] six spacious rooms.Photo credits:
Photo 1: Wikimedia Commons
Photo 2: Photo by Israel Garcia from Pexels