Affect Or Effect? 'Grammar Girl' On The 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse

npr.org:

Further versus farther, compliment versus complement, affect versus effect -- the ever-complex, often-irregular English language is full of traps and pitfalls. But don't despair! Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty has come to the rescue of America's befuddled masses.

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Comments

[KDMac]

11:03 AM on 07/08/2011

I know "ensure" and "insure" have to be in there....

[MichaelAKD]

03:09 PM on 07/07/2011

i had one prof early on that during our very first day told everyone if any of you misuse the words affect or effect in the wrong context i will give you an automatic F. being an arrogant smart arse i found myself trying to use the words in every assignment i could just to push it. he got me once but i was able to argue my intent and he changed my grade but for many others they weren't so lucky. my trick was to remember A comes before E in the alphabet and affect with the A comes first, is the "cause" and effect starting with E after A is the result of what came first e.g. cause and effect. just a trick one of many we all create to make our lives easier. reminds me of yet another pair of words commonly swapped when they shouldn't be, hypothesis and theory. you start with a hypothesis and then later comes the creation of theory. such is life, language is constantly evolving, it is a social artifact and as such is dependent upon time and environment. drop any one of us into the audience of one of w. shakespeare's plays in the 16th c. and most of what we would hear would sound like gibberish. one final thought, trivia if you prefer, the word goodbye, it began as god-be-with-ye in olde english, everyone have a good day, bye now.