Conscious atau conscience

As you’ve probably worked out by now, the English language can be very confusing.

But we at BBC Learning English aim to help you understand English more easily, so let’s look at some of the different types of words that may puzzle you!

One sort of confusing words are homophones – that means two words which sound the same but have different meanings. Here’s a basic example: time – as in hours, minutes and seconds (TIME) and thyme, the name of a herb (THYME).

Now, let’s join Finn and Abigail, who are going to look at one pair of confusing words.

Finn : Hello, I'm Finn and you're listening to Soundalikes from the BBC. In this programme we learn to spot the difference between words in the news which sound alike.

Abigail : Yes I'm Abigail and I’ve brought you two similar-sounding words: conscious and conscience.

Finn : Conscious and conscience. Now they do sound alike, but I think it’s fair to say not exactly the same this time – conscious and conscience. Let's hear them as they’re used in news stories.

"The medical team in Jakarta described him as still weak, but conscious."

"He claimed to be astonished by the revelations and he vowed to act as the government's conscience."

Finn : Ok – so first we heard that someone was weak but conscious.

Abigail : Yes – and conscious here it’s spelled CONSCIOUS, and it means being awake – being aware of your surroundings.

Finn : OK, so being awake, alert perhaps. Not unconscious.

Abigail : Yes.Unconscious that’s the opposite of conscious. And if we say that someone is conscious or unconscious, we're probably talking about their medical state.

Finn : Right, so that’s slightly different from saying 'I am conscious of' something isn’t it?

Abigail : Yes. If you say that I am conscious of, it means you’re aware of something, you know it or you know about it. So for example you could say, someone comes late to a meeting, and you could say “she was conscious she was the only person who arrived late.”

Finn : Right, ok so now let's move on to the other word, conscience.

Abigail : Yes. Well this word, has an N in it CONSCIENCE, someone's conscience that’s their sense of what is right or wrong morally. And you might say that you are guided by your conscience.

Finn : Right, which I imagine most of us are to an extent. So in the news story there we heard that someone was going to act as the government's conscience.

Abigail : Yes – so perhaps the government is going to make a big decision and this person wants to make sure that their decision is the morally right decision.

Finn : Thank you Abigail. So conscious – that’s being awake or aware, and conscience – that’s the moral guiding sense.

So we heard Finn and Abigail talking about the words conscious and conscience. Let’s see if you can identify the two different words when used in a sentence. So, the two meanings are: conscious – meaning aware or awake and conscience –a sense of right and wrong

"A detective seriously injured when she was hit by a car is now fully conscious."

"Politicians have to make up their own minds based on their individual conscience."

So, did you get them right?

Number 1 meant awake and number 2 meant sense of right and wrong

If you got them all right – well done!

Let’s recap the spellings of those two words. Conscious –awake or aware- is spelt CONSCIOUS and conscience –meaning sense of right and wrong- is CONSCIENCE.