My grammatical peeves

[manley1]

[begin senseless rant]

Okay, I know that I need to unclench about this one, but I keep seeing people at work writing effect instead of affect, and it's driving me batty. I know that they are virtually homophones, but it shouldn't be too, too hard to remember that almost always affect is a verb while effect is a noun. When you affect something, a

Comments

[eric_mathgeek]

Why it's hard to remember: You have to *care* to be able to make the distinction. Most people don't -- if they're even aware that there *is* a distinction.

My heart goes out to you, my friend. Those things drive me nuts, too.

[manley1]

I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. I just wish more people did care about the proper use of words. But, it's probably another point for the anti-intellectualism movement that has gripped America, where proper word use makes you an elitist or something. Look at our last president for an example.

[eric_mathgeek]

I'd rather not look at him anymore, thank you. :)

[thetathx1138]

No, you see, now, he has no power, so we can point and laugh and throw peanuts at him, just like all the other chimpanzees.

[thetathx1138]

What, I humped a commodity?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

[manley1]

That's really where my mind takes me, to give you probably some unwanted insight.

[lowersecond]

Should I duck before I point out the typo at the beginning of your grammar rant? [grin]

[manley1]

Never. I want people to point out my dumbassery. That's how I learn.

EDIT: I am no longer "being" a senseless rant. :-p

[eric_mathgeek]

There's a difference between typos and grammar errors. ;)

I'll give him that story and stick him with it... er, I mean, stick by him with it.

(Ok, going into things to stick him with... or, things with which to stick him, which is not exactly the same thing... um, where was I?)

[manley1]

Syntax can be a bit of a mindfuck. :-p

[anna_esq]

I believe you meant "continual" rather than "continuous" in your second paragraph. Heh.

Also, "effect" can be a verb, and "affect" can be a noun, so that's not a hard-and-fast rule.

[manley1]

I'm aware, but they are generally edge cases as people don't generally talk about psychological affects or effecting change (e.g. "to bring about"). And, as edge uses, I think people should generally avoid them.

Once again, XKCD shows me the way:

[anna_esq]

In my job, people DO talk about effecting laws, or the affect of someone testifying in court (for example).

Also you ignored my main point, which was to point out your misuse of the word "continuous":

Continual means "happening over and over again"; continuous means "happening constantly without stopping." If you're continually on the Internet, it means you keep going on; if you're continuously on the Internet, it means you haven't gone off at all.

[manley1]

Yes, I concede your point on that on continuous v. continual. Kudos.

Anyway, your career may fall into the edge cases, but mine generally does not. As such, I'd like to keep our usage simpler so as to avoid confusion.

I also just signed up for the "Grammar Girl" daily mailings so that I can be more of a pretentious grammar douchebagaware of common mishaps so as to avoid it in myself. In the meantime, I still want to squash some things that bother me.

[limbodog]

Cranky? Maybe. Irregardless, I think your right.

(yes, on purpose)

[manley1]

You learned me good on that one. :-p