Practice/practise: please stop me from turning myself inside-out

[minecraftismysaviour]

"With practice/practise, Fred's handwriting should improve."

Noun or verb? I can honestly say that the example I've been given to work with is driving me insane.

I need a Mumsnet verdict and large gin

To practise

You go to the doctor's practice. I remember it by saying you have a consultation at a practice - c and c.

So a verb!

Practice is a noun, in the same way that advice is a noun.

Practise is a verb, in the same way that advise is a verb.

Thankfully, advise and advice are pronounced differently, so I use that to remember the spellings of practise and practice.

In your example: 'With practice, Fred's handwriting should improve. However, he will need to practise every day.'

It's a noun. Practice is a "thing" in that sentence. The word in, say, "If he practises..." would be a verb.

We've had a long discussion at work today about this. I originally chose the noun (practice) because it was the thing in the sentence; tested by substituting 'revision' and thinking about it as the name of the session where Fred would concentrate.

However, it was argued that it was the act of going over his letters...

looking for tonic in the cupboards

A noun. Substitute another word: 'With gin, Fred...'
Practice is correct in the context.

Many thanks for the replies people. Sanity restored

Even if it is the act of going over his letters, that's still a noun.

Oh no! I thought it was ok, then I went back to the ppt! "With practice / practise at home, Fred's handwriting should improve."

Does that change it?

No.

Use advice and advise as they sound different but work the same as license and practice.

So you wouldn't say "with advise Fred could improve". You'd say "with advice Fred will improve" therefore it's practice :)

Thanks first and museum. I am stepping away from the keyboard

It's all "practice" in American English, thank heavens.

It seems to me that you're unnecessarily tying yourself up in knots. Just mentally substituting advise & advice, as previously mentioned by TheFirst, is easy.

Scone - I did a TEFL course in which we were told that some parts of the US do use practise and practice, as we do in the UK. In any event, I like the fact that English is so complicated nuanced .

Miranda It's true that some writers do make the distinction in the US, but it's not really a regional thing, more an Anglophile thing. It has all but disappeared though and is considered a bit precious pedantic.

We don't make a distinction with license/licence, either, in AmE, but in that case we go with the "s" word, license. We do make the advise/advice distinction.