Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
COMPOSE / COMPRISE
One of the most common meanings of compose is form or make up.
Comprise, on the other hand, means include or consist of.
The confusion here mainly crops up when the past tense of these verbs is used due to that little word of, which is correctly used with the word composed but not with comprised:
The castle was composed of many rooms.
The castle grounds comprised a massive gate and a moat as well as lush gardens.
In this case, comprised means “were composed of.” Therefore, you could restate this, keeping the same meaning, by saying: “A massive gate and a moat as well as lush gardens composed the castle grounds.”
In their enlightening and entertaining book Sleeping Dogs Don’t Lay: Practical Advice for the Grammatically Challenged, linguists Richard Lederer & Richard Dowis give “comprised of” a “never” rating. In other words, it is okay to use the preposition “of” in conjunction with composed but not with comprised.
INCORRECT: The symphony is comprised of three movements.
CORRECT: The symphony is composed of three movements.
ALSO CORRECT: The symphony comprises three movements.
REMEMBER: If you can substitute “include” for “comprise,” you’re good to go. There is no need for that pesky little preposition “of.”
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