Hello everyone!

I’m back with another confusing word pair: compliment and complement. Today’s pair tends to trip people up because not only are the words’ meanings somewhat related, but their spellings also differ by only one letter–and they’re also pronounced the same way. Yikes! But fear not; the good news is that there’s an easy way to remember which word means what.

Let’s start with the definitions. Compliment functions as both a verb and a noun, meaning to express praise or appreciation (the verb form) or the actual expression of praise or appreciation (the noun form). So, I complimented her on her new haircut or She received a compliment on her new haircut. Complement also functions as both a verb and a noun, but there are actually two different definitions for the noun. The verb form of complement means to complete something or to make it better. One of the noun forms of complement pairs with the verb (like the noun and verb forms of compliment), meaning something that completes something else or makes it better. The other noun form means the usual required number or amount of something. So, Her new earrings complemented her haircut nicely or Her new earrings were a nice complement to her haircut or She received her full complement of haircuts each year to make sure her locks didn’t get too long.

Now that you know the different definitions, how do you remember which definition goes with which word? The trick that works for me is that compliment has one “i” and one “e,” just like the word nice. When you compliment somebody, you’re being nice. The other trick that works for me is that the extra “e” in complement complements the first. So, complement has two e’s because they complete each other, and compliment has an i and an e just like nice because it’s nice to express praise and appreciation!

I hope this helps you keep track of which word to use when. Stay tuned for more tricky word pairs soon!