What’s the difference between announcement and advertisement?

This week we are looking at two words which are sometimes confused: announcement and advertisement.

announcement

An announcement is a public statement giving information about something.

The government made a public announcement about the progress of the talks.

The announcement gave details of small increases in taxes.

advertisement

An advertisement is an item in a newspaper, on television, on the internet, or in a public place, which tries to persuade you to buy something, or which gives you information about an event or job vacancy.

He bought the game after seeing an advertisement on TV.

They placed an advertisement for a sales assistant.

The following abbreviated forms are commonly used.

advert

The advert is displayed at more than 4000 sites.

ad

The agency is running a 60-second TV ad.

Find out more in our English Usage article.

This blogpost is based on Collins COBUILD English Usage, written for learners of English. For more examples of English usage points, please visit:  https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/english-usage.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

Related Articles

Other Articles

How to use ‘Used to’

The verb used to is a ‘marginal’ modal verb. Unlike the other modal verbs, it is only found in the past tense. Therefore, when it is used with do to make negatives and questions, the form of the auxiliary verb is always did.  Used to is used as follows:  to describe an activity or a state that… Read More

Use of Shall and Will

The normal way to express simple future time in English is using the modal verb will followed by the base form of a main verb. The modal verb shall can be used with the pronouns I and we, especially in questions, but is not used very much in modern English. Shall I bring you some tea?… Read More

Each/Every/Either/Neither

The words each, every, either, and neither are distributives. Distributives are determiners that are used to talk about how something is shared out or divided. Each, every, either, and neither are used with a singular noun. Each child was given a balloon. I remember every detail of our conversation. Either child could win the prize. Neither plan was successful. Each and every Each and every are not used… Read More