动词assure与insure, ensure和guarantee语义相似。但与后三者相比，assure肯定的含义要弱。再者，与 insure, ensure和guarantee表达的一种让某事确定的含义不同，assure其最自然的用法表达的是一种让(或试着让) 某人相信某事是确信的。
- The simplicity of this approach assures us of its general applicability.
- The patient was assured by his doctor that the side effects of the treatment would be minimal.
以下我们列举了最常误用assure的情况。
- The fact that M is a unitary matrix assures that it preserves the inner product.
- With this method of administration, the active ingredients are stored separately, and not mixed until immediately before ingestion. This assures maximal potency.
在以上每个句子中，“assures” 都被误用了。 在(3)中,应用insures, ensures 或 guarantees替代；而在(4) 中, insures, ensures, guarantees, facilitates和allows for则均可。
