Writing for Business - A Whatis.com Blog » ICANN http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business Is your grammar as good as your code? Thu, 16 May 2013 11:40:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 substantial vs. substantive http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/substantial-vs-substantive/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/substantial-vs-substantive/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:49:24 +0000 Ivy Wigmore http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/?p=886 Which is correct?
They felt the report was unclear and requested a new plan defining __________ changes rather than broad, ill-defined goals.
a. substantial
b. substantive

Answer: Either.

Explanation:
There are those who would argue that substantive refers to things that have substance — real things, rather than imaginary things and that substantial should be reserved to refer to things that are large or major. In fact, though, the two are both used for the first meaning.

On the other hand, substantive doesn’t ever mean large or major.

Pain in the English has a debate about substantive versus substantial.

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