About vs. Around

How to use "about" and "around" correctly

This is an entry on my list of Common Errors in English Usage. Visit the main page for direct links to additional entries.

Some grammar police insist that around should not be used to mean “about” or “approximately”:

around five hundred people
around six o’clock

 about five hundred people
at about six o’clock

Note that this rule is often disregarded by native speakers, including educated writers.

Related Resources

Common Errors in English Usage: Errors in diction and idiom commonly made by native speakers of English

List of Common Errors in English Usage (PDF): Printable version of the complete list

Common Grammar Errors: A list of common errors in grammar (topics like subject-verb agreement and parallelism) as distinct from usage

List of Common Errors in English Usage: PDF version

© 2006, 2008, and 2019 C. Brantley Collins, Jr.