Effect/affect; accept/except
The words effect and affect are widely used (and confused) in students’ essays, largely because they are often describing how changes take place in novels, in a test-tube, or in life certain result:
- that bring about a certain effect or a
The effect of mixing the two chemicals was a huge explosion that killed half the class.
Effect here means the consequence, the result of something. It can also be used as a verb, meaning ‘to bring about’:
He effected a change in government policy.
Affect however, means ‘to have an influence’ on somebody or something, usually on feelings:
The remaining members of the class were much affected by the tragedy.
Affect, then, is a verb meaning ‘to influence’; ‘to be affected by’ means ‘to be moved by’, whereas effect, meaning ‘results’, is usually a noun. The most reliable check is to see whether there is a, an or the in front of the word; if there is, it is not a verb, and so the correct word will probably be effect:
They were all deeply affected by the effect of the explosion.
If you are not certain, therefore, whether you have used the right word, look ill the word before: was it a, an or the?
An error in the same area is confusion between accept and except. Again, accept is a verb, meaning ‘to receive willingly’, whereas except means ‘excluding’ or ‘but’:
All accepted the free samples of chocolates, except those on a diet.
Principal/principle
This is another pair of words that are often confused, and where it is worth making the effort to distinguish between them on the basis of what you know. In science, for example, you may be writing about the principal effects of something (meaning the foremost effects), while, in history or philosophy, you may be concerned with moral principles. Principal means ‘main’ (Americans use principal as a term for the head of a school); principle is a rule, value or standard. We could, therefore, write that the principal is a man with certain principles.
A way of remembering these kinds of difference is through the use of mnemonics, a made-up phrase to aid memory. The mnemonic might be more trouble than it is worth, but the combination of letters in the following, for example, might remind you of the difference between principal and principle:
My number one pal is the principal;
Disciples have principles.
Principal, however, is not just a person:
His principal reason for leaving the country was to visit his mother.
In each case, principal means, or is connected with, the main or foremost quality of something.