Many people get the words assure, ensure, and insure mixed up. They can be tricky if you don't understand the subtle differences in their meanings. To clear things up, we offer this simple explanation.
Assure
"Assure" means to make someone confident of something. You can only assure people, not things.
Examples:
The employee assured his boss of his loyalty to the company.
I assure you, I never stole anything in my life.
Ensure
"Ensure" means to guarantee or make certain that something happens. You ensure things, not people.
Examples:
To ensure that all will go smoothly, you should spend more time planning.
Ensure that this is a necessary step in the process.
Insure
"Insure" means to protect against a financial loss.
Examples:
We will need to insure our house against flood damage.
Before you drive your car home, you will need to insure it.
To sum up, we've put together a sentence that uses all three words in their proper form:
I assure you, the legislature is hoping to ensure that homeowners can insure their homes against flood without having to pay excessively high premiums.