A Choice Between Two Things vs. Two Choices

Pardon me, but I get really ticked when I hear someone misuse “choice” and “choices.” Capital One comes to mind immediately because the ads are so pervasive. Samuel Jackson is always telling you that you have “two choices” when he really means that you have A CHOICE between two things!

Two choices means two separate sets of decisions, each with two or more options. YOU HAVE A CHOICE between the credit card he is hawking and some other brand of credit card. You DON’T HAVE TWO CHOICES!

If you wanted to have two choices you might need to choose, number one, whether or not to have a credit card at all and two, whether or not to have the credit card brand he’s selling. That’s two choices.

If you were buying a piano from me, I would tell you that you had A CHOICE between walnut or mahogany, not two choices. If you were buying a piano from me, I would tell you that you had A CHOICE of delivery dates — Tuesday or Thursday.

If I want to give you TWO CHOICES I’d tell you that you had two choices — one regarding the finish — walnut or mahogany — and one regarding the delivery date — Tuesday or Thursday.

Now you have A CHOICE. You can choose to ignore this post or you can comment on it. That is your choice. You actually have more than one choice here. If I give you TWO CHOICES your first choice involves whether or not to ignore it or to comment on it and your second choice involves whether you comment positively or negatively.

Got it? Thanks for reading. I hope you choose to comment!