Joint or Join? Which one is correct?

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Last week I reposted our most popular blog post, “That’s Mean vs. That Means” and just recently, I’ve noticed another common mistake Malaysians make which can be easily corrected. Joint vs Join.

These two words have completely different meanings, but so often incorrectly used for the same meaning.

See if you can tell which one is the correct sentence.

A. I want to joint the online course.
B. I want to join the online course.

The correct answer is B, “I want to join the online course.” When you add “t” to the word “join”, it becomes “joint” and it’s a different meaning from “join”.

Let’s quickly look up the meanings of the two words.

1. to connect or fasten things together;
2. to get involved in an activity or journey with another person or group;
3. to become a member of an organisation.

1. belonging to or shared between two or more people e.g. “a joint bank account” or “the project was a joint effort between the two classes.”

2. a place in your body where two bones are connected;
3. a place where two things are fastened together

So, if you want to say you wish to get involved in an activity, programme or journey with another person or group, you need to use the word “join” and not “joint”.

This is because “join” is a verb (something you do). “Joint” is an adjective (it describes the quality of something) or a noun (it’s a name of a place in the body or where two things are joined together).

I hope this has been helpful!

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Hi there!

We’re Azimah, Amnah and Aisya from Malaysia. We created My English Matters as a digital platform to help Malaysians and second language learners with their English proficiency.

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