Grammar Girl here, today Bonnie Trango will help us boldly go where many grammarians have

gone before, deep into the dictionary to discover the true meaning and correct usage of the

word comprise.

Some of you may feel that this is an alien word to be avoided at all costs, because it's

tricky.

Others will be willing to communicate with this strange species, helping us on our journey

will be an odd, mnemonic device.

It seems simple enough to comprise means to contain as in the house comprises 7 rooms.

In other words, this house has or contains 7 rooms.

When you use comprise, you're talking about all the parts that make up something, usually,

more on that a little later.

The important thing to remember when you're using the word comprise is that the item that's

the whole shebang comes first in the sentence, second comes the items that are its parts.

For example, you might say a full pack comprises 52 cards.

The pack is the whole shebang, so it comes first in the sentence.

It would be wrong to say 52 cards comprise a full pack.

Likewise, America comprises 50 states, not 50 states comprise America.

In this sentence, America is the whole shebang, so it comes first in the sentence, the whole

comprises the parts.

The fly in the ointment as far as the word comprise goes is the similar sounding word compose,

which means to make up, as in many ethnic groups compose our nation.

Notice in this sentence that the parts come before the whole.

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