choose or select?
1Each semester students are required to choose/ to select five or six courses.
2Barbara has so many admirers that she doesn't know whom to choose/to select.
The task is to choose the correct answer. Intuitively, I'd choose "to select" for 1 and to choose for 2, but it's not clear for me from their definitions and I can't infer the rule.

Question

choose or select?
1Each semester students are required to choose/ to select five or six courses.
2Barbara has so many admirers that she doesn't know whom to choose/to select. 
The task is to choose the correct answer. Intuitively, I'd choose "to select" for 1 and to choose for 2, but it's not clear for me from their definitions and I can't infer the rule.

Answer

choose

Answer

They mean the same thing.  They are interchangeable.  However, 'choose' is more informal than 'select' so I agree with your choices.

Answer

select:
1. carefully choose as being the best or most suitable

choose:
1. pick out or select (someone or something) as being the best or most appropriate of two or more alternatives
2. decide on a course of action, typically after rejecting alternatives

As verbs the difference between choose and select is that choose is to pick or to make the choice of while select is to choose one or more elements of a set, especially a set of options.

Thus, I believe if one is to be preferred over the other, then "select" is best for 1 and "choose" for 2.

Answers · 3

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