Submitted by silver  •  November 16, 2007

Skilled or skilful?

What is the difference between ‘skilled’ and ‘skilful’? Is it just a matter of collocation - the skilled craftsmen, the skilful footballer - or is there something more profound to it?

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Ruricolist  (unregistered)

November 16, 2007, 2:19pm

A person can be skilled or skillful, but a thing can only be skillful. This is sometimes an important distinction: "skillful work" is work done with skill; "skilled work" is work calling for a skilled (or skillful) person to execute it. Also, only skillful has an adverbial form, so for consistency one may want to say "skillful" if one later intends to say "skillfully."

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Silver  (unregistered)

November 19, 2007, 5:06am

Thanks very much Ruricolist - that's very useful.

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anisete46  (unregistered)

November 19, 2007, 5:53am

Is the difference between these two terms the same as for skillful and skilled above? Thanks.

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anisete46  (unregistered)

November 19, 2007, 5:54am

sorry, forgot to put the words: "efficient" and "effective"

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whj wilco  (unregistered)

November 19, 2007, 12:56pm

Efficient includes the concept of economy of effort and time--thus the job is done as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Effective includes the concept of usefulness and appropriateness--thus the job is done with an eye to the end result being beneficial. IMHO anyway.

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