Manual - Manuel

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', or in fact with his whole body).
  • 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.)