PSA: Affect/Effect

zaq

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 8:44 pm

Posting because this mistake has been showing up more and more often here, and these kinds of errors are as painful as a choir singing flat.

This from http://www.vocabulary.com/arti.....fect/

Choosing between affect and effect can be scary. Think of Edgar Allen Poe and his RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. You can't affect the creepy poem by reading it, but you can enjoy the effect of a talking bird.

In everyday speech, affect is a verb. It means to influence something, such as in the headline from the Albuquerque News,

Downed Power Line Affects PNM Customers

The downed power line had an impact on some power customers: they were without electricity overnight.

Effect is mostly commonly used as a noun meaning the result or impact of something, an outcome. If there's "a/an/the" in front of it, it's an effect. The second sentence is from a story about the outcome of long-term sleeping trouble,

The Effect of Persistent Sleepiness

Adding to the confusion, effect can also be used as a verb to mean to produce or to cause to come into being. Here's an example that uses it correctly,

A government unable to effect any change is a government that will produce no surprises.

Put another way, a government that can't produce change won't be able to produce surprises; it will be predictable.

Most of the time, you'll want affect as a verb meaning to influence something and effect for the something that was influenced. The difference between affect and effect is so slippery that people have started using "impact" as a verb instead. Don't be one of them! Another trick is to remember that affect comes first alphabetically, and an action (to affect) has to occur before you can have a result (an effect).

For those of you who are more edumicated, there is also the noun affect, pronounced AF-fect, used in mental health fields, meaning external expression of emotion. If a person is described as having "Flat affect", he's a Stone Face. "inappropriate affect" might be laughing at a funeral.

mommyla

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:23 pm

Bless you.

Also loose/lose (my eyes!), definitely/defiantly (really?), "would of" (ouch), and a host of others that drive me crazy (can't list all of them now).

relish

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:28 pm

definitely/defiantly
The above is for sure from autocorrect.

oliveoil

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:36 pm

There are so many that drive me crazy:

- All the "of" ones. eg. should of, would of, could of, got used of it

- loose weight

- post pardum

- fullproof

- glutton free

- budd out

and the list goes on...

Interestingly, I give more leeway with effect/affect. I think it's in a whole different category, and I know even some professional editors who have to look it up each time.

youngishbear

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:39 pm

I stand by my one request: posters, please write shorter paragraphs. Even if someone completely mangles the english language (which is many posters' second or third language) I can figure it out if it's not a single block of text filling up the screen.

I don't think it's fair to grade people's grammar on a chat forum. This isn't high literature.

And I do appreciate fine literature, and I love reading well-written posts, but imamother is for everyone who has something to say.

Let sleeping dogs lie. Or lay. Or laid. Pick one Smile

. (Do you know which one?)

And don't bother pointing out that this is not the appropriate expression for the occasion. I know.

MagentaYenta

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:44 pm

This is an ok thread. I'd prefer to hear your views on the Oxford comma. I've seen some bloody online battles over it's use.

studying_torah

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:44 pm

Oh and weary/ wary! Weary is tired, wary is cautious or reluctant. Drives me crazy!
As does the could of, should of business.

oliveoil

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 10:59 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

This is an ok thread. I'd prefer to hear your views on the Oxford comma. I've seen some bloody online battles over it's use.

I believe very strongly in the Oxford comma!!

youngishbear

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 11:02 pm

oliveoil wrote:

I believe very strongly in the Oxford comma!!

Me, too.

Or rather, so do I.

Or perhaps I do, too.

Think, choose, and post the correct phrase.

youngishbear

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 11:10 pm

Oy. Is imamother for everyone who has something to say, or anyone who has something to say? (I see that in my first post I wrote everyone. Which is not strictly true. Neither is anyone. You have to be frum, female, and married either presently or in the past.)

Perhaps Yael can way in on this weighty subject.

(Weigh!! It's weigh!!! I know!!)

youngishbear

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 11:15 pm

youngishbear wrote:

Did that imply that a poster can be no-longer-frum? Or no-longer-female? Or what I think I really meant, no-longer-married?

mommyla

Wed, Jul 08 2015, 11:25 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

This is an ok thread. I'd prefer to hear your views on the Oxford comma. I've seen some bloody online battles over it's use.

Its!

Forgot "ranting and raving" used as a positive phrase. I've seen this one in magazines. "Ranting and raving" is a bad thing, "raving" on its own is a good thing!

And all the unnecessary apostrophe's Twisted Evil

Iymnok

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 2:23 am

Press enter, it gets your post read, not ignored.
Use full words, text speak is for texting and preteens. Regardless of your age, intellect or background, I will assume you to be a preteen girl if you write as one.
I agree with loose/lose. Loose is big- there are 2o's, lose lost one.

For those who don't know, it's could HAVE, should HAVE, would HAVE. could've, should've, would've is fine too. The latter are clearly a congegation of "have" not "of".

Fox

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:28 am

oliveoil wrote:

I believe very strongly in the Oxford comma!!

Bless you!

Does anyone else follow Grammarly.com through their website or social media?

They have great wallpapers, and one of my favorites shows a Victorian woman grasping a rifle. The caption reads, "You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it out of my cold, dead, and motionless hands!"

They constantly have humorous lessons on various punctuation and usage topics, and I'm embarrassed to say that I've learned all kinds of things I thought I already knew.

Iymnok

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:34 am

A comma before 'and'?

JMM-uc

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:47 am

Oh oh (or is it oh no?) I'm probably responsible for many of these errors.
But really I just do it to entertain you and give you more ideas for threads.
Clearly I know the correct way!!

p.s.

What's a paragraph?

gp2.0

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 7:29 am

Gosh this is a casual forum. I save my high and mighty English for more formal occasions. I usually skip the comma because using it means going into a different keyboard. The periods happen automatically.

I agree some spelling mistakes hurt the eyes but I remind myself to be impressed that people can eloquently express themselves in a language other than their first language.

princessleah

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 2:21 pm

You know what really bothers me? All of your JUDGEMENT! Terrible ladies, really terrible.

youngishbear

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:06 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

This.

youngishbear

Thu, Jul 09 2015, 3:07 pm

princessleah wrote:

You know what really bothers me? All of your JUDGEMENT! Terrible ladies, really terrible.

AND THIS.

Soon we will need a subforum for the ESL or grammatically impaired members.