"Proper" vs "Appropriate" vs "Suitable" - English Language ...

"Proper" vs "Appropriate" vs "Suitable" ... As Cambridge Dictionary says, "proper" means: "real, satisfactory, suitable, or correct". Also, it is ... EnglishLanguageLearnersStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforspeakersofotherlanguageslearningEnglish.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore "Proper"vs"Appropriate"vs"Suitable" AskQuestion Asked 2years,9monthsago Modified 2years,9monthsago Viewed 6ktimes 1 3 AsCambridgeDictionarysays,"proper"means:"real,satisfactory,suitable,orcorrect".Also,itissaidthat,"suitable"means:"acceptableorrightforsomeoneorsomething".Anfinally,"appropriate"means:"suitableorrightforaparticularsituationoroccasion". Asyousee,theyhavelotsofsemanticoverlapswhichmakesapersonwholackstherequisiteintuitionfallintodoubtwhenitcomestouseeachcase.ThisiswhyIdecidedtoprovideyouwithsomeexamplestodiscoverhowandwhentouseeachcase.Iwouldappreciateitifyoukindlyletmeknowaboutthewrongchoicesforeachcase.Herearemyexamples: Suchmoviesarenot...........forchildren. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Twooutoffivepeoplelacka..........jobinthatcountry. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Suchsmallstudiosare............foryoungcoupleswhohavenochildren. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Ican'tcometotheceremonytomorrow!Idon'thaveany..............clothes. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Itisnota/an..............timetoaskheraboutthismatter. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Wewilltake..........actionswhenitcomesto. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Theydontconsiderhima/an.............husbandfortheirdaughter. a.suitable b.appropriate c.proper Pleasenotethat,tomeasanonnative,allchoiceaworkforallcasesabove. Ihavealreadyvisitedthesimilarthreadontheforum. Someusefullinks: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/fitting-suitable-appropiate-proper.2313993/ https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/3204687 https://www.englishforums.com/English/SuitableProperAppropriate/bbcnwp/post.htm https://www.italki.com/question/191255 https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/96774-what-is-difference-between-approperiate-and-proper http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv108.shtml https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-proper-apt-and-appropriate word-usageword-choiceword-meaningdifference Share Improvethisquestion Follow askedAug6,2019at14:50 A-friendA-friend 13.7k3939goldbadges174174silverbadges313313bronzebadges 4 Wheredothosesentencescomefrom? – Lambie Aug6,2019at15:33 Mostofthemaretakenfromvariouscontextsanddictionarieswithsomeslightchangesinordertoclearoffthepossibleambiguities@Lambie. – A-friend Aug6,2019at15:49 Well,Iseesomeredflagsbutingeneralthinkthistypeofquestionismuchtoobroad. – Lambie Aug6,2019at15:53 Youareright@Lambie,butIthinkthatthisistheonlypossiblewaytoobtainaslightintuitionaboutthesetypesofsynonymouswords. – A-friend Aug6,2019at16:55 Addacomment  |  1Answer 1 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 3 TheonlyoneofthesevenexampleswhereIwoulduse"proper"is Twooutoffivepeoplelackaproperjobinthatcountry. Fortheothers,yourdictionarydefinitionsstatethat"appropriate"appliestoa"particularsituationoroccasion". SoIwoulduse"suitable"in1,3,4,and7. Iwoulduse"appropriate"in5and6. Theanomalyis4,andperhapstheusageisamatterofopiniontoo. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedAug6,2019at15:13 user3395 answeredAug6,2019at15:10 WeatherVaneWeatherVane 13.4k22goldbadges2525silverbadges4141bronzebadges 2 Thankyou@WeatherVane,butI'mquiteconfidentthatfor#1allchoiceswouldwork(asIencounteredmanytimesinmanyoccasions).Regarding#2&3I'msurethayatleastboth'proper'and'suitable'work.Also,for#4Ihaveseenmanycasesincludingeither'appropriate'or'suitable'. – A-friend Aug6,2019at15:30 1 AsIwrote,someoftheusageisamatterofopinion,andalsodependsoncontextsuchaswhetherthespeakerismakinga"valuejudgement",saywhen"proper"mightbeusedbyaspeakerfromonecountry,butnotfromanother.Asfor#2intheusualcontext,onetalksabouthavinga"properjob"(i.e.anactualjob,withpayetc).Asfor#4,that'swhatIwrotesoyoudon'tdisagree.In#3"proper"wouldonlybeusedbysomeonefromaculturethathasverystricttraditionsofwhattypeofaccomodationshouldbeinhabited. – WeatherVane Aug6,2019at15:38 Addacomment  |  Youmustlogintoanswerthisquestion. Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedword-usageword-choiceword-meaningdifference. FeaturedonMeta AnnouncingthearrivalofValuedAssociate#1214:Dalmarus Improvementstositestatusandincidentcommunication Related 8 Appropriateusageof"Take"and"Give" 1 wordchoicegood/suitable 4 Choosemostsuitablewordsbetweensmear,smudge,smut,andsmirch 5 “…moresuited.”vs“…moresuitable.” 3 "Exact"VS"Accurate"VS"Precise 0 Is"deterred"appropriatehere? 0 Is"guarantee"appropriatehere? 1 Is"faith","substance"or"certainty"moreappropriateinthissentenceandwhy? HotNetworkQuestions Moviewhere3siblingsgetlostinbetweenuniversesinahotel Notationclassifyingtopos AtJohn5:18,didJesusbreaktheSabbath? Whatdoes"themoneywasthechips"mean? MariaDb-Howtoensurea(LEFT)JOINonlyifasinglerightsiderecordexists Acapacitorchargetime-twomethodstwodifferentanswers Whydon'tthesewordslooktohavehavethesamesize? Howtofindthegainofaninvertingamplifierintermsoffeedback? f-stringrepresentationdifferentthanstr() Whyaretherethreeverbsinarow? IsitabuginDSolve? AccordingtotheLDS,whendidthe“truechurch”ceasetoexist? ArethecomputersonPioneer10&11stillrunning? Isthereaproofofstrongnormalisationbyusingordinalnumbers? HowtoXORtwoexpressionsof`test`? Kaplan-MeierestimatorfromconvoysshowsstrangebehaviorcomparedtoWeibull Does"DemonGravity"breakphysics? HowtocreatepatternsforDeleteCases/Cases/Select:deletingelementsofalist,fromtheconditionofanegativeelementinacolumn HowdoEnlarge/ReducespellinteractwiththeOversizedWeaponsrulewhenyouEnlargeaMediumsizecreaturewithamediumweapontoLargesize? Helpwithtwoverysimplebutopaquegobbetsofneo-Latin OnentirefunctionswithpolynomialSchwarzianderivative HowcanIremovestrippedscrewsinabathroomexhaustfanmotorbracket? Sampleintegersthatsumtoonehundred Torquewrenchnotclickinganticlockwise morehotquestions Questionfeed SubscribetoRSS Questionfeed TosubscribetothisRSSfeed,copyandpastethisURLintoyourRSSreader. Yourprivacy Byclicking“Acceptallcookies”,youagreeStackExchangecanstorecookiesonyourdeviceanddiscloseinformationinaccordancewithourCookiePolicy. Acceptallcookies Customizesettings