These words have overlapping meanings to do with certainty and security.
Insure:
- To guarantee or protect (usually against risk, damage or loss) in a financial sense
- To take out or issue an insurance policy
Ensure:
- To make certain
- To make safe or protect
In American English, insure is used instead of ensure. It is much less common to see this in British English (and probably to be avoided).
Hannah McCall 
[…] Insure and ensure […]
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Have you done bear and bare? I ask because I recently came to the painful realization that I screwed these two up in a blog post. In my defense, it was pure typo rather than not knowing the correct one to use, but the shame may be too much to bear. 😉
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It happens to all of us! And at least you know that quite a few people won’t have noticed… But yes, I have done that post: https://proofreaderhannah.com/2015/06/10/bare-or-bear/ . June seems like such a long time ago now!
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So would I replace ensure with insure each time if I’m living in North America? Or is it just less common to see ‘ensure’?
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It is my understanding that in common usage ‘insure’ is used in America for both meanings. However, it is regarded as best practice by some sources to maintain a distinction (you ensure something happens but you insure a thing against financial risk). The Chicago Manual of Style has some detail on this.
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