Assure, Ensure, Insure

Let’s begin by saying that the three of them are verbs (regular verbs) and that all of them are put into Spanish with the same word: ASEGURAR. And though they are translated with the same word in our language that doesn’t mean they have the same meaning. Not completely at least.

ASSURE is to say something with the purpose of ending all doubt or cause of worry. When you assure something, in a way you guarantee that something is certain or it’s going to be certain if it is not already so (so PROMISE is a good synonym). Here is an example:

Beloved people of my country, if you have me as president then I’ll ASSURE you that I’ll devote myself to end all manner of corruption.

ENSURE is basically the action of making things happen or that they become certain. It is a synonym of ASSURE. Here is an example:

Thanks to this new energy plant the energy supply for our country has been ENSURED for the following twenty years.

INSURE is to obtain insurance from a company in order to protect something, economically speaking. If something happens to what has been INSURED the insurance company will give you an amount of money previously fixed when the insurance contract was signed. Here is an example:

It is a pity that we lost the warehouse, but at least the goods inside had been INSURED a few weeks ago.

Imagine someone saying the following:

“I ASSURE you I’ve taken the necessary steps to ENSURE that everything goes well tonight. I’ve even INSURED the equipment in case something goes wrong.”