• 2-minute read
• 17th July 2018

Word Choice: Half vs. Halve

It is understandable that people get ‘half’ and ‘halve’ mixed up. These terms are related and sound similar when spoken, after all. But one of these is a noun and the other is a verb, so if you want your writing to be error free, make sure to follow our advice on how they should be used!

Half (Fifty Percent of Something)

‘Half’ is a noun (i.e. a word that names something). We use it to refer to fifty percent of something:

I ate half the pie in one sitting.

The first half of the match was boring.

The plural of ‘half’ is ‘halves’, not ‘halfs’. This is the same as many other words that end in an ‘-f’ or an ‘-fe’, such as when ‘wolf’ is pluralised as ‘wolves’ and ‘knife’ becomes ‘knives’.

We can also use ‘half’ as an adjective or an adverb. For instance:

Adjectival: I got this jacket for half price at the sale!

Adverbial: I’m only half watching the football.

In the first sentence, ‘half’ modifies the noun ‘price’. In the second, it modifies the verb ‘watching’. But in both cases, it still suggests either being fifty percent of a whole or generally divided.

Halve (Divide into Two Equal Parts)

The word ‘halve’ is a verb (i.e. an action word) that means ‘divide into two equal parts’. For instance:

She took a knife and halved the apple.

The new route halves the time it takes to arrive.

The important thing here is that all verb forms of this word are spelled with a ‘-v-’ and never an ‘-f-’.

Half or Halve?

The fact that the plural of ‘half’ is spelled similarly to the verb ‘halve’ can be confusing. However, knowing that the verb form is always spelled with a ‘-ve’ makes it easy to avoid mistakes. Remember:

Half (noun) = Fifty percent of something

Halve (verb) = Divide into two equal parts