Affect vs. Effect
Saturday night, after more than a few vodkas, my family had quite a spirited discussion on grammar and usage. What can I say? We are a barrel of laughs. The affect vs. effect debate came up and my dad and I were certain we had it correct, although my SIL disagreed. Well, we had it 99% correct. And as I am one to always admit when I am wrong, I wanted to post the difference here. As soon as I get home from work, I will be calling both my SIL and my father to set the record straight.
IN GENERAL: AFFECT is a verb and EFFECT is the noun. For example -Getting drunk by the pool at your brother’s house will affect the way you feel the next day. The effect it will have on you is not necessarily pleasant. Makes pretty good sense, right?
However, as the English language tends to have an exception to every rule, there are two exceptions here.
EFFECT can be a verb, sometimes. For example - Mary, please effect a total makeover of this memo. Effect is the verb there because there is a direct object (makeover). Fun, huh? I think that no one should speak like that anyway, so in my humble opinion, it’s very safe to use the Affect = verb/Effect = noun rule, because as I mentioned before, that is correct most of the time. And if you don’t speak like a total automaton, you will never have cause to use effect as a verb.
AFFECT can also sometimes be a noun, but it tends to be used mostly in the context of psychology. For example - Joe exhibited no affect when he learned that his pet turtle had escaped. Again, not the way that the majority of the population would use that word, so you could go your whole life and never need to use affect in that way.
There you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about those two words, but now that you have read this, you will have no excuse to use them incorrectly ever again. By the way, I found my information on this site, in case you are interested.
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comment (0)Fall Back! Fall Back!
We get to set the clocks back on Saturday night. I love that I get an extra hour of sleep. I hate that it will be dark on Sunday night at 5 p.m. UGH. I love summer when it stays light until almost 9 p.m.
Oh, and I am putting this post under “Grammar Queen” because I have to remind you all of one thing. The term is “Daylight SAVING Time” not “Daylight Savings Time.” No S at the end. It’s not a bank.
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comment (0)WONKY
WONKY - WOHN-kee;adj. to be off-kilter; not normal; weird; strange; generally whacked.
That’s for you, Ron. Hope it helps!
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comments (3)Fun With Grammar
Jake sent me this joke today. He knows me so well….
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Fuck.
Fuck who?
No, “fuck whom”?
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comment (0)More Pronunciation Tips
Watching the news is always a reminder of how people in this country can’t speak. Here are three more for you:
1. REALTOR. That is pronounced REEL-TOR. Not REEL-A-TOR. If you look closely at the word, you will notice that the A comes BEFORE the L. Very simple.
2. NUCLEAR. This is pronounced NUC-LEE-ER. Not NUC-YU-LAR. Our current president would do well to learn how to say this word correctly.
3. HEIGHT. There is no -th sound at the end of this word. It’s just height. I guess since “width” and “length” have the -th sound at the end, people just are on a roll and put it on height as well.
That is all for now. Class dismissed.
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comments (2)Weary v. Wary
OK, folks here is one that has come up quite a few times lately and I have to mention it. The words WEARY and WARY mean very different things. Weary means tired. Wary means skeptical or suspicious. You are weary from your long day working on the farm. You are wary of men in one piece clothing.
Class dismissed.
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comments (2)More Pronunciation No-Nos
OK, here are a few more annoying pronunciations that have been bugging me lately. And since this is my blog, it IS all about me.
#1 ECSTATIC - this word is pronounced EK-static. Not ESS-static. That is a hard C sound in there. This is a form of the word ECSTASY, which no one goes around saying as ESS-tacy.
#2 ESPRESSO - this lovely Italian coffee does not have an X in it, as much as some people would like to put it in there. It is not EXpresso. It’s not fast coffee. I have actually seen coffee places write this word incorrectly on their menus. That is just inexcusable.
#3 PICTURE - this word is not pronounced PITCHER. Again, the hard C sound in there. It’s PIK-ture. I don’t know if this is just a thing that people in the south seem to do, or if it’s a nationwide thing, but it’s really annoying.
OK, there you go. Class dismissed.
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Made Up Words and Bad Grammar
‘Irregardless’ THIS IS NOT A WORD. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard supposedly educated people using this word when they want to sound formal or professional or something. Sorry, but you sound like an ass. It’s not a word. The word is just ‘regardless.’ See, the ‘-less’ at the end means that there is no regard. You don’t need to an ‘ir-’ on the front. It’s almost a double negative.
‘Orientate’ Again NOT A WORD. The verb is ‘orient.’ The noun is ‘orientation.’ This you see used quite a bit in HR, where I work. ‘Donna, would you mind orientating this new employee?’ I wish I could do that. Unfortunately, that verb does not exist. That was most annoyingly used by a boss of mine in a very high power law firm, who I later found out was trying to pretend she was a degreed professional, but her degree was actually from secretarial school. I guess they don’t teach grammar there.
‘ATM’ Machine and ‘PIN Number’ For those of you who pay attention, ATM and PIN are acronyms. That means they stand for other words or phrases, which are long and unwieldy and as such, get shortened. In these cases, the Machine and the Number are built into the acronym. So when you say you want to visit the ATM Machine where you will enter your PIN Number, you are actually saying, ‘I want to visit the Automated Teller Machine Machine where I will enter my Personal Identification Number Number.’ What’s scary is that this is becoming very common to see on TV news and other places where you would think they pay some poor schmuck to check their grammar.
‘I Could Care Less’ This phrase is especially annoying when misused because you are actually stating the opposite of what you are trying to convey. The correct phrase is ‘I COULDN’T care less’ meaning that you care so little about something that it’s not possible for you to care any less. When you say you could care less, it means that you care some, at least enough that it’s possible for you to care some amount less.
‘Six AM in the Morning’ As opposed to six AM in the evening? Or six PM in the morning? Really, pay attention. AM means morning, PM means afternoon. Choose either AM/PM or morning/evening. You don’t have to reiterate. Thanks so much.
‘It Needs Done’ This is a favorite of my husband’s. He does not understand that this is just plain wrong. (Although, chances are he knows now, but continues to use it just to make me cringe!) The correct sentence is ‘It needs TO BE done.’ I just scoured some grammar guideline sites to find a phrase for what that is, but google.com had nothing to offer on the subject. That means that it is such bad grammar, there isn’t even a term for it!
Not Reading Words Carefully I have someone near and dear to my heart who often talks about ‘voltive’ candles. PAY ATTENTION! There is no L in the word ‘VOTIVE. Just search for it. You won’t find one. I promise. And no amount of pointedly saying the word correctly in her presence seems to convey the message.
Not that I have an opinion….
Filed under Grammar Queen | Comments (9)
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