Closed 14 years ago. Possible Duplicate: “Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas” I've always wondered which is the correct spelling: "naïve" or "naive"? Are both correct, and it is just whichever you feel comfortable with?
a naive or ingenuous person. It is true that the first word derive from the French word that is the feminine word of naïf, but from the dictionary I get they have different meanings.
Naive people are likely to be trusting or unsophisticated. Essentially, ignorance is a lack of knowledge or education. Naivety is a lack of experience and wisdom. Someone who makes inappropriate comments would more likely be described as ignorant. Someone who thinks that bad things only happen to bad people would be described as naive.
I understand why naïve is spelled with two dots, and that those dots are called a diaeresis. What I do not understand is whether the use of a diaeresis is legal in English; is it? Other than na...
Hitting it straight off here, naïve is a loan-word (a word that was derived from another language yet has avoided entire english assimilation) yet naivety is an english modification to the word. Changing the word to english rules force the word into a completely english state, removing the dieresis (¨) from over the i. In addition, personal experience leaves me hearing the word naivety as ...
If the person is unable to function in a given setting because of a lack of knowledge- that person is ignorant. If the person believes everything they're told without a healthy amount of skepticism and "common sense" that person is naive.
The origin of "naive" is the French word " naïve ". (Notice that the French " naïve " is italicized) As a French word, it is spelled naïve or naïf. (French adjectives have grammatical gender; naïf is used with masculine nouns while naive is used with feminine nouns.) The two dots above the "i" are called diaeresis. As an unitalicized English word, "naive" is now the more usual spelling ...
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas” Is it spelt “naïve” or “naive”? Merriam-Webster lists both spellings without any comment on validity / usage. The second variant seems to be the French original, and the other the "anglified" version. Is there even a slight, maybe stylistic, difference?
So, where did the double vowel sound of "nigh" in naïve come from. Is there a logic or reason behind it? Related questions with answers covering writing of naive/naïve, trema, and diaresis: res's answer on "whereäs" Is it spelt "naïve" or "naive"?
