ENGLISH
REFERENCE

assigning

v.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //əˈsaɪnɪŋ// UK //ɐsˈaɪnɪŋ// as·sign·ing

v. to give someone a specific job or piece of work to do. It can also mean to decide that something belongs to a particular person or group.

v. to allocate a task, responsibility, or property to a specific person or entity. The present participle of 'assign'; takes a direct object.


SIMPLE

The teacher is assigning homework to the class now.

CONTEXTUAL

The manager is currently assigning roles for the new project to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities.

COMPLEX

By assigning specific numerical values to qualitative feedback, the researchers were able to perform a more rigorous statistical analysis of the survey results.

Synonyms
Usage

The verb is transitive and typically takes a direct object (the task) and an indirect object (the person), often using the preposition 'to'.

Pitfall

He is assigning to me the task.He is assigning the task to me.When using 'assign' with 'to', the direct object (the task) should generally precede the prepositional phrase.

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