Meaning & use
self-check
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A check you carry out on yourself, your own work, or your own equipment without help from anyone else.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a self-check or several self-checks.
Patterns
- do a self-check
- a quick self-check
- a self-check on something
Before you hand in the report, do a quick self-check for spelling mistakes.
The machine runs a self-check every time you switch it on.
Nurses ask patients to do a self-check at home once a month.
nouncountable
A short test that learners take to judge their own progress, often with answers provided.
Grammar: Countable and common in teaching materials: a self-check at the end of a unit.
Patterns
- a self-check exercise
- the self-check at the end of a unit
Each unit ends with a self-check so students can see what they still need to review.
I did the self-check online and got eight out of ten.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To examine your own work, health, or behavior in order to find problems.
Grammar: Can take an object (self-check your answers) or stand alone (self-check before you send it).
Patterns
- self-check something
- self-check before doing something
Self-check your answers before the exam ends.
Patients are taught to self-check their blood pressure at home.
Word forms
| plural | self-checks |
|---|
Common combinations
- do a self-check
- Do a self-check before you print the document.
- run a self-check
- The printer runs a self-check when it starts up.
- a quick self-check
- A quick self-check showed that two figures were wrong.
- self-check your work
- Always self-check your work before sending it to the client.
- a self-check questionnaire
- The doctor gave me a self-check questionnaire about my sleep.
Synonyms and how they differ
- self-assessment
- More formal and often used for taxes or official reviews of your own performance; a self-check is usually quicker and more practical.
- self-examination
- Often suggests looking at your own feelings or body carefully; a self-check is more about practical errors or faults.
- self-test
- Very close in meaning, but more common for machines and software than for people checking their own work.
Word family
- self-checking adjective
- Describing something that checks itself, such as a self-checking program.
- check verb
- To look at something to make sure it is correct or safe.
Commonly confused: self-check or self-esteem?
self-check vs self-esteem
Self-esteem is how good you feel about yourself, while a self-check is an inspection of your own work or health.
Practice
Before you submit the form, ______ it for errors.
Choose one answer.
After 'before you' we need the base verb form, so 'self-check' is correct. 'Self-checking' would need a helping verb such as 'are', and 'self-checked' is past tense, which does not fit after 'you' here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-check”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.