7-1-04 Affect and Effect

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="042d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Big Ring Media Team, Inc.</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Ring Media Team, Inc."><B>home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="043d2123.jpg"> <div> Click on this link to return to <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Date">Word Watch by Date</A>.</div> <div> Click on this link to go to <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Subject">Word Watch by Subject</A>.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>7-1-04 Affect and Effect</I></div> <div> “Affect” and “effect” are among the trickiest of homophones*. Two conditions contribute to this confusion. First, the meaning of either isn't abundantly clear. Second, both words can be used as nouns or verbs.</div> <div> As a verb, “affect” has several meanings:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">To influence: Ergonomics affect the design.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">To impress or to move: The music of Chopin affected him deeply.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">To pretend, feign or take on: To annoy his sister, Jim would affect a British accent.</div> <div> As a verb, “effect” means to bring about or to cause: The new marketing team was able to effect a reversal of the loss of market share.</div> <div> As a noun, “affect” can be used as a feeling or emotion, although that use is rare. As a noun, “effect” is synonymous with “result”: Pouring water on the fire had the desired effect.</div> <div> *Some would argue that “affect” and “effect” are not homophones at all. Our experience is that it takes a well-tuned ear to detect the difference in these words, and that the difference is nonexistent in some American dialects. We're sticking with our assertion that these are homophones, or at that they are at least homophonish.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>