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Reader question:

In the following – Should we have been upfront with them in both cases? What do you think the results of such honesty would have been? – is "upfront" the same as "honesty"?

My comments:

You're close. Being honest means you don't lie or steal or whatever. If you're honest with someone, you don't lie to them about what you've done if they ask you about it. If you're upfront with them, however, you tell them before hand, before they ask you about it.

See the difference?

You can best understand what being upfront means by examining the adverb form of the word – up front.

Yes, upfront means being up front. If you're a shareholder of a company and you want the company to be up front with you, that means you want the company to tell you about its business deals ahead of time. You don't want to find them out later in the newspaper.

Or if you order something by telephone and they tell you they need the money up front, you have to pay first before they have the goods delivered to you.

Hence, therefore, if you're upfront with someone over something, you tell them directly, from the start, without waiting for them to ask you first. Longman dictionary gives this example: "Jorge wanted to help her, but she told him up front that she didn't need it." Here, she was being honest with Jorge, that is, honest in a frank, direct and straightforward way.

Here are two more examples to drive the point home.

1. They view this ship strictly as a business opportunity and have no consideration for people that are spending their money thinking they are going to take a great vacation. If they were upfront with people, I am sure they would be out of business in no time. Their website is very deceiving as well. They make you think you are going on some dream vacation with great entertainment, food and accommodations but you are NOT! This ship looks its age and smells like sewage.

- cruisereviews.com.

2. Aside from that, the mutual fund industry is open to criticism. Or should I say closed to criticism. The industry is not upfront with shareholders. As I have always said, a mutual fund is a packaged product, and the wrapper is decidedly opaque.

- Shareholders too confident of stock funds, Oakland Tribune, May 5, 2003.

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.