premise房屋

The many COVID-19 instructions about self-isolating have highlighted an anomaly in English (and we know there are many!)

‘The use of premises to mean a building and grounds derives from its use to refer to the people and items listed as the preliminary to a conveyancing deed.’

Here’s an example using premise correctly: ‘Let’s work on the premise that the vaccine rollout in Australia will be completed by the end of October.’

premises中文

We acknowledge and pay respect to palawa as the traditional owners and custodians of lutruwita and to the Bundjalung people of the Northern Rivers.

The singular word ‘premise’ has an entirely different meaning: an idea or theory on which an action or statement is based.

Premises is a plural noun, but it is used to describe a single building, using a plural verb. (See the end if you are interested in why.)