Do you revise revisions?

[Glenn]

I was wondering lately about the use of the word "revise" in what I assume is anywhere but the US (maybe Canada's with us). I've heard/seen Ozzies and Brits use "revise"where I would say "review". So if you revise, instead of review, materials or information for tests, what do you revise? Does it also work for rewriting/editing a written piece of work? Or is there some other word that filled its void (I'm assuming it left one when it took "review"'s place)?

[fanglu]

I (Australian) use revise to mean both 'to change and modify' and also 'to reread (usually with the purpose of memorising)'.

I use review to mean 'to read over (not necessarily rereading or with the purpose of memorising)'.

I think you can revise a revision. It would involve updating an update. If you wanted the other meaning I would study or memorise a revision.

[Glenn]

Alright, I had figured that it kept its meaning to "change and modify". That's an interesting distinction you draw between "review" and "revise" (to me at least). For reading over (not necessarily with the purpose of memorizing) I'd use "reread". Do you use "reread"? If so, is it only for sentences, and not whole books or passages? Or is there some other distinction made there?

As far as revising revisions goes, I admit it was a pretty dumb title. It just popped in my mind and I didn't feel like thinking.

[creamyhorror]

In Singapore students say "revise notes" or "revise a subject" to mean "reread/review" notes or a school subject. "Revision" usually refers to the process of studying/reviewing.

[anonymoose]

I agree with fanglu and creamyhorror.

Edit: I'm from the UK.

[Glenn]

anonymoose, where are you from? I'm curious to know if anyone from outside the US uses "review" to mean "read over and study" and "revise" to mean only something like "edit". I'd also be curious to know if there are any Americans who use "revise" the way I've only heard Australians and Brits use it (I'm not counting ones who spent lots of time with non-American native speakers or in countries outside the US, although I'm still a bit curious about Canada).

By the way (just to clarify), all my life "review" has basically meant something like going over learned material to reinforce it (i.e., 復習), and "reread" to read something over (i.e., 重讀), perhaps to make sure you didn't miss anything, but not in a sense of studying. I only heard "revise" to mean what I use "review" for about 4 years ago when I spent time with an Australian friend in college, and thought he was just confused about the usage at first, until it occurred to me that there was probably some regional variation going on there.

[fanglu]

I find these kind of things interesting too. Eg this thread - I would never say 'off of' but Americans say it all the time.

[Glenn]

To be honest, I misunderstood that when I first saw it. I thought it meant to turn off the subtitles, not to export them to some text file or whatever. I use "off of" all the time too, though, like "get off of me" or "please get off of my car" or something. I don't know if that's exactly what you're talking about, though, because I can't think of any other way to say them.

[imron]

How about "please get off me" and "please get off my car"?

Also, I (Australian) agree with fanglu and Anonymoose in usage of revise and review.

[Glenn]

Hmm... sounds kind of strange. Although I can't defend the usage of "of" there. haha

Well, Australians certainly are well-represented here! Do we have any other English-speaking countries represented? New Zealand? South Africa? Probably not Jamaica...

[skylee]

By the way (just to clarify), all my life "review" has basically meant something like going over learned material to reinforce it (i.e., 復習),

When I was young, revision was 複習, not 復習.

[Glenn]

Does that mean it's changed to 復習? To be honest, I was using Japanese with that one, so I didn't even bother to check. I did have to go check both of them just now though, because you made me wonder. Sogou gives 複習 as the conversion, but MBDG and 重編國語辭典修訂本 give both 複習 and 復習 as the same thing (saying 複習 is a variant of 復習), and Japanese uses 復習, with 複習 not being in the dictionary. This may speak to a general laziness on my part, but in cases like this I tend to just go with what I know given that it will be understood anywhere (復習 here).

That being said, can I count you as a British English speaker who uses "revise" consistently with the Australians and Singaporeans?

[skylee]

My understanding is that revision means "amendment" and "going over what you have learnt again". But I hardly use the verb revise in the latter sense.

I don't know what has happened to 複習. In the Lin Yutang Dictionary (older and perhaps not as complete) there is only 複習, no 復習. I tend to use 複習 as it is what I learnt as a kid. It seems that the common view is that both are ok (similar to 翔實 and 詳實; 公佈 and 公布). No such confusion in simplified Chinese as both 複 and 復 are simplified to 复.

[skylee]

I have just checked my traditional script version of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (Commercial Press Hong Kong, 2008; ISBN 13-978 962 07 0211 2). There is only 複習, no listing of 復習.