Homophones are words with the meaning of sounding the same when verbally spoken, but they are spelled differently and have different meanings.
For inexperienced English users, the most common committed mistake is spelling error, but one must know the concepts are very broadly different from each other. For the sake of prevention of error occurrence and lack of elegance in messages, it is highly important to know the difference. It might not seem like a huge difference, but it is a subtle difference that distinguishes between beginners and advanced English orators.
AID vs AIDE
The main difference between Aid and Aide is that aid is both a verb and a noun with the verb meaning being to help or give assistance on the other hand an aide is a noun that refers to a person acting as an assistant or a helper.
The word ‘aid’ refers to the meaning of helping or assisting someone with some chores. Aid can be used in both transitive and intransitive verb forms. Aid is the most commonly used even though what one must actually be meaning to say is an aide.
On the other hand, the word ‘aide’ refers to the person who acts as an assistant to someone. It has been derived from the word ‘aid’ itself. A few synonyms to help understand the meaning of aide are helper, apprentice, adjutant, mate, and many more.
Comparison Table Between AID and AIDE
| PARAMETER | AID | AIDE |
| Meaning | An aide is a job title it means an assistant or a helper to an important person. | An aide is a job title that means an assistant or a helper to an important person. |
| Grammatical Form | Aid can be used as a verb and a noun. | The aide can be used only as a noun. |
| Noun | Aid refers to the concept of help. | Aide refers to a person. |
| Context | This is used generally. | This is especially used in political and military positions. |
| Example | More government is aid is necessary to improve the situation of farmers. | During the war, many women volunteered as medical aides. |
What is AID?
Aid can be multiple parts of speech. To correctly interpret the meaning of aid, one must specify if it is being used as a noun or a verb first. In either instance, it means to assist one in need or the assistance itself.
Aid as a Noun:
- The war zone hit civilians and was provided aid by the soldiers.
- Financial aid can help you to afford the college fees.
- Additional aid was added to the progress report as doctors and health officials worked overtime to find a cure for the disease.
Aid as a Verb:
- Dr. Rathore’s aid in discovering the new drug took the pharma company to a pinnacle.
- Climber plants need aid in their growth.
- Sachin hit a century in his last World Cup before retirement, aided by a half-century by Dhoni.
The word aid is also used in naming devices that help someone with bodily impairment, like hearing aid, a mobility aid, a visual aid, and a cognitive aid for computer systems.
English grammar has many phrases which utilize ‘aid’:
To Aid and Abet: to assist someone in doing a wrongful activity.
- Raghav aided and abetted Sanya to cheat in the examination.
In Aid of: for supporting.
- The society raised funds in aid of cancer patients.
Some common juxtapositions with aid are:
Emergency Aid: Assistance during a natural calamity or war.
- India offered emergency aid to Sri Lanka during the civilian war.
Humanitarian Aid: Support to help improve conditions for people living with major problems.
- Humanitarian aid was provided for families with major issues of poverty.
To enlist the aid of: To ask for help.
- The institute enlisted the aid of a rehabilitation center to help their son with alcohol addiction.
What is AIDE?
Aide refers to a person who assists. When we use an aide, we refer to a person or people helping us do some chores.
An aide comes from two words aide-de-camp and aide-memoire.
The ‘aide’ is an abridged version of the French word ‘aide-de-camp’. An aide-memoire is mostly a document that is produced to summarise key findings and important commendations of an evaluation.
The plural of aide is ‘aides’, which sounds similar to the disease ‘aids‘ and hence one should use it carefully.
A few examples to aid you with a better understanding are:
- Samanta worked as a presidential aide for 6 years.
- The company has many inexperienced aides working in it.
- Peter was an aide in many dire situations and helped Agni to do her work.
Main Differences Between Aid and Aide
- Even though the pronunciation is the same for both words, they hold different meanings. Aid means to help someone achieve something they are unable to do themselves, whereas an aide is a person who is helping the one in need.
- Aid can be both a verb and a noun. On the other hand, an aide can always be a noun only.
- Aid is used as many people don’t know much about the difference, but aide is used in places where political or military positions are being addressed.
- Aid was first used in the 15th century, whereas aide was first used in 1777.
- The etymology of aid is from Middle English “eyden”, from Anglo-French “aider” and Latin “adjutare” and aide is derived from the French word aide-de-camp.
Conclusion
Even though they sound similar, and both refer to the same notion of serving, at long last, ‘aid’ and ‘aide’ should not be misspelled or confused because they define different concepts. The first is resources offered as help, while the latter defines a person responsible for helping someone.
But appreciatively, there prevails a trick to distinguish between these two homophones. Since an aide is a person always, there will be an article to go with it, like ‘the” and “an”. Look for these articles to be sure if they mean aide or aid.
References
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0040059914537202
- https://europepmc.org/article/med/7575317
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525861004700183
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