Difference between revisions of "Manual - Manuel"

From Hull AWE
Jump to: navigation, search
(No difference)

Revision as of 21:27, 29 March 2007

These words can be confused by careless writers – and spellcheckers!

Manuel is essentially not English. It is a (man’s) name in other languages (most commonly Spanish). So it is used in English. (It is the name of a Spanish character in the popular television comedy Fawlty Towers.)

Manual is a native word. As an adjective, it means ‘to do with the hands’, for example when you catch your hand in a door, you might have a ‘manual injury’. A manual labourer is one who earns money through physical work (‘with his hands’).

As a noun, a manual is ‘a handbook’ – a basic source of reference for mostly practical matters. (It also has a meaning in Music, to do with organs: it is the keyboard played with the hands, as opposed to the pedal keys, which are played with the feet.)