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language evolution - How common is the confusion between "affect" and "effect"?


I stumbled onto a US Congress representative’s website with what I think is a blatant and very visible mistake:


John D. Dingell website


Namely, the sentence in yellow, “How does the population change effect our district”. I am surprised to see this error in such a high-profile and (probably) thoroughly checked webpage. So, I wonder: how common is this exact error (effect vs. affect)? Have the usage of the two really started to merge, so that we should consider them as equivalent?


PS: yes, I know the dictionary says they have different meaning; I'm asking about usage and the evolution of the language.



Answer



The [mis]usage is quite common, but the two have not started to merge and should not be considered equivalent. Most lists of common vocabulary mistakes list affect vs. effect among the most frequently encountered.


Don't assume that what you see on a U.S. Representative's web page is grammatically correct or even good English. Even well-intentioned, literate people make what I call "spell-check" errors. That is, a spell-checker will validate both effect and affect and even grammar checkers may not flag their misuse since they can both appear as nouns or as transitive verbs. (It didn't get flagged by the computer? Get it on the web page!)


Proofreading is something almost no one does by hand (or eye) anymore. Too bad.


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