✅ Cause and motive refer to the reason for an action (Her graduation was a cause for celebration; Profit was their only motive).

✅ Motive is the perfect word when you want to highlight the desire or incentive which moves a person to act and produce specific results (His motives for meeting with school administrators were purely political).

✅ Motive (commonly found with the adjectives ulterior and selfish) is often more sinister than cause, and is used in legal proceedings to mean the motivation for committing a crime.

Check out more synonyms for motive!

✅ Although both gift and bonus are given voluntarily, bonus is more limited, meaning something given in addition to what is due (The gift shop gave customers a box of chocolates as a bonus with purchases).

✅ Primarily, bonus refers to money, either given to employees in recognition of hard work (an annual bonus) or given to entice someone to become an employee (a signing bonus).

✅ While a bonus is most often given to an individual, a gift can be given to a single person, a group, or an institution (The charity received several large gifts this season).

Here's a gift—more synonyms for bonus!

✅ Both difficult and hard describe something that is not easily done (a difficult task; a hard climb) or understood (a difficult equation).

✅ Difficult is the perfect word when something is hard in a more intricate way, and perhaps requires special effort or skill (Tax law is difficult to explain; They made a difficult decision).

✅ While hard is the more general term, difficult contributes a more elevated tone to your writing.

Writing something difficult is easier with Grammar Coach!