Correct Word Usage

1. Correct Word Usage By Cherene Hospedales Grace Rosa Marina Zannino

2. Affect vs. Effect http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx • The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.

3. Affect • Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Aardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." • Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," • "She affected an air of superiority."

4. Effect • Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."

5. Although vs. While • http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/although-versus-while.aspx • Although means in spite of the fact that. • “While” is a Sense of Time.

6. Although • Although is what's called a concessive conjunction, meaning that it is used to express a concession. • Although Sir Fragalot is tall, Squiggly and Aardvark consider him an equal.

7. While • “While” should be reserved to mean “at the same time.” It should have a temporal sense. • “While Squiggly gathered wood, Aardvark hid the maracas.

8. Further vs. Farther http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/further-versus-farther.aspx Use “farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance.

9. Further • If Aardvark gets frustrated with Squiggly, which he surely will, he could respond, “If you complain further, I'm going to shoot you out the airlock.” • Aardvark used “further” because he isn't talking about physical distance, he's talking about a figurative  distance

10. Farther • Squiggly and Aardvark are flying to galaxy far, far away, but Squiggly gets bored and starts mercilessly bugging Aardvark. "How much farther?'" he keeps asking in despair. • Squiggly used “farther” because he was asking about physical distance

11. Fewer vs. Less http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/less-versus-fewer.aspx The basic rule is that you use less with mass nouns and fewer with count nouns.

12. Fewer • A count noun is just something you can count. I'm looking at my desk and I see books, pens, and M&M's. I can count all those things, so they are count nouns and the right word to use is fewer. • I should eat fewer M&M's.

13. Less • Mass nouns are just things that you can't count individually. Again, on my desk I see tape and clutter. These things can't be counted individually, so the right word to use is less.