Key difference: Aid refers to something that is provided with the intention of being helpful or necessary. Aid is basically help. Aide, on the other hand, refers to a person whose job is to assist someone. An aide is similar to a secretary or a personal assistant.

The two terms, ‘aid’ and ‘aide’ are quite similar; for one they sound the same, and second they are have only one letter differentiating them. However, the two terms are in fact quite different from each other. They have different meanings and depict different things.

Aid refers to something that is provided with the intention of being helpful or necessary. Aid is basically help. The term is often used at times of natural disasters to refer to help and provisions that are sent to the victims and survivors. The term ‘aid’ can be used as both a verb and a noun, which means that it is both the help that is given, and the act itself of giving it.

 Aide, on the other hand, is completely different. It refers to a person whose job is to assist someone. An aide is similar to a secretary or a personal assistant, even though their job descriptions may vary a bit depending on the work company’s description. Government officials can have many aides, for example, who help them with logistics, research, and so forth.

An aide is basically a helper, whereas to aid is to provide help, and aid is the help that is given. In order to differentiate between the two keep in mind the following sentence: The aide provided aid to the student. Here the sentence refers to an aide who has aided or provided aid, i.e. helped a student. Another way to differentiate them is to keep in mind, that aide refer to a person, whereas aid is always an inanimate object.

Comparison between Aid and Aide:

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