More commonly confused words

Materiel/ material

Materiel is a noun referring to military technology and supplies. It means any equipment or supplies. The plural form of the word is materiel, without any letter s at the end, so it would be wrong to write materiels if many different kinds of materiel are meant. The word entered the English language from the French noun materiel, meaning equipment. Why would a French word be needed to describe an essential part of military life in English-speaking countries? Since before the time of Napoleon, French military thinking and strategy have influenced the way training and education of officers has been conducted, especially in America. Sometimes writers of Thai English confuse the noun materiel, with its specific meaning of military equipment, and the more common noun material. The noun material means substance of matter from which something is made. Science students and ajarns are familiar with the definition of matter as something occupying space, with mass, as opposed to energy. More generally, matter also refers to any physical substance, to separate it from things of the mind or spirit. Material can be a confusing word because it has so many different general meanings. Yet this underlines its importance as a word in English. Material can also be something needed in order to do something, or someone who may be appropriate for some challenge or not. If your cousins refuse to read, study, take exams, or sit in a classroom, then it may be safe to say that they are not university material. In the context of preparing for an academic article or thesis, the noun material may also be used to describe the data assembled for the project. An ajarn may ask if you have gathered enough research material to prepare a thesis or article. Scholars of the Thai textile industry have also seen the word used in the context of fabric. Then there are meanings of material as an adjective. All fans of pop music remember Material Girl, a song by the American singer Madonna.

In this context, the adjective material means the physical world or things of the body, instead of things of the mind and spirit. In Madonna’s song, material also means worried about money, fancy clothes, and nice people who give those things to her. In the song, human relationships are seen as ways of exchanging money, and people in love are like commodities brokers. Students and ajarns from the Faculty of Law will have seen the adjective material in the context of whether in a court case, evidence is relevant to the specific trial in question. So we will see information mentioned as being material to a crime investigation. Outside law courts, the adjective material is also used to mean something with a purpose or useful for a certain aim, such as material to an inquiry or investigation. Finally, as an adjective, material can mean important, as when we say that the tsunami did material damage to the coastline. In other words, the matter or substance of the coastline was affected by the storm, so the harm was material. In all these meanings and uses for the word material, we will note that none has to do with military life. So when we mean to discuss military matters, it should be simple to remember that that word should end with the letters iel and not the letters ial. A further hint is the fact that in commonly used English, very few words end with the letters iel, and most of these are foreign terms adapted into the language, as materiel was. Among such words are glockenspiel, a German term for a percussion instrument made of tuned keys arranged like the keyboard of a piano. Another word of German origin that ends with the letters iel is Singspiel, a kind of German light opera from the 1700s with spoken dialogue and sung passages. The most famous example of a Singspiel is Mozart’s Magic Flute. Dog lovers will immediately recognize the word spaniel for a type of hunting dog of much-debated origins, still popular today. Apart from these few examples, almost no words that would appear in a serious research paper or thesis end with the letters iel, which makes it easier to separate materiel from other words. By contrast, the word ending ial is extremely common, meaning related to or connected with. Many hundreds of English words end with the letters ial. Among the most often seen of these is the word material, because of its many uses and places where it is appropriate. Remember that this is unlike the word materiel, which is correctly used only in the context of military or defense subjects.

Among other examples of frequently seen words ending with the letters ial:

social

special

official

financial

potential

industrial

essential

commercial

initial

substantial

crucial

memorial

residential

judicial

imperial

presidential

controversial

artificial

influential

partial

serial

editorial

denial

provincial

colonial

differential

racial

beneficial

managerial

dial

territorial

spatial

confidential

tutorial

ministerial

aerial

trivial

superficial

unofficial

bacterial

martial

facial

ceremonial

entrepreneurial

perennial

sequential

parochial

terrestrial

secretarial

impartial

testimonial

polynomial

familial

remedial

arterial

matrimonial

preferential

pictorial

glacial

immaterial

proverbial

custodial

existential

Note that by familiarizing ourselves with these words ending with ial and associating the word material with them, we increase them probability of avoiding mistakes in writing all of these useful terms. Here are some further usage examples:

• The Royal Thai Air Force receives the second Saab 340 airborne early warning and control aircraft from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration at Wing 7 base in Surat Thani.
• Thailand used to rely heavily on weapons and defence equipment from the USA, but the Thai military has had to diversify its sources of materiel to many other countries due to budget constraints.
• Fidel Castro sent troops and materiel to support the revolutions in Namibia and Angola, sometimes personally plotting the conduct of revolutionary war from way across the Atlantic.
• The government pledged to recognise its military capability with a new 10-year procurement plan for defense beginning this year, but while the air force is already an established regional force, the navy lags behind in its effort to modernise outdated materiel.
• Auntie Muay became much more positive and upbeat. “Pha makes my day,” she said. “We do a lot of things together, living in the same dormitory, having breakfast, and enjoying activities arranged for us, particularly making bags from reused material.”
• The company’s core business activities are sales and distribution of industrial materials such as industrial chemicals, polymers, plastic resins, dyestuffs and textile auxiliaries, silicone products, food chemicals, pharmaceutical chemicals and many others.
• The Bangkok Post has content that appeals to readers with a variety of interests: a wide variety of social, cultural and human interest features, book and movie reviews, horoscopes, comics, and a host of other material.
• For many years, Thailand has realised that it must keep the natural forests, while buildings made using timber have been replaced by concrete and steel. However, not many are aware that wood is actually a choice of material that is considered renewable, reusable and recyclable.
• An effective & scalable textile for personal thermal management, the new material lets heat body gives off as infrared radiation to pass through.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)