Affect and effect - name the mistake

[Bert]

I know how to use affect and effect. But does the incorrect usage have a special name? There have been several threads recently about punctuation errors - it's and its - and we can agree that there are common spelling mistakes - confectionary and cemetary - and there is bad grammar - we was, for instance. I think that lend/borrow may just fall into this category, and loose/lose probably does too. People obviously pronounce loose/lose correctly, so it may be just a spelling mistake. It's hard to know whether people are pronouncing affect/effect correctly.

[acw]

I don't know the answer to the question, but I do have a pointless tip for affect and effect - if you can just remember that it's the Greenhouse Effect, you'll be laughing all the way to the top of the Good Grammar League! :-)

 

Oh - and I'm so pleased someone else is taking the "use of the English language" baton from me, after someone had a bit of a go on my other thread I thought it best I shut up.  Least I know I'm not the only one! :-) Thank you Bert! :-)

[Quizmonster]

It may sound like a bit of a cop-out, but such mistakes are generally called "wrong word errors". I like one person's idea that they should be called 'mindos', on the same basis as 'typos'...a slip of the brain rather than a slip of the pen, in other words. One rather more 'technical' term which at least partially fits the situation is, of course, malapropism.

[THECORBYLOON]

acw "effect" is a noun and a verb, mind..........

[EssJay1]

If I was being really nasty, I'd say it's called ignorance, but now I'm approaching the age where I'll start to be affected maybe I won't be so hasty!  Wrong word errors sounds reasonable but does it explain prostate/prostrate, affect/effect, of/have (as in should of/could of) and it's late so I can't think of any more!!

[Quizmonster]

I would say, Ess, that it explains prostate/prostrate perfectly. In normal speech, 'affect' and 'effect' sound almost identical unless one is making a deliberate effort to distinguish them. However, there is not the slightest difficulty in separating 'prostate' and 'prostrate'. People who should know better simply always use the 'r' version, whether they mean 'lying down' or 'male internal organ'. This is, of course, a combination of ignorance and laziness.

[ontarioice]

From my Gregg Reference Manual:
Affect is normally used as a verb meaning "to influence, change, assume." Effect can be either a verb meaning "to bring about" or a noun meaning "result, impression." These words are listed in a chapter titled "Usage," so I suppose "Incorrect Usage" would be your explanation. I don't find anywhere that there is a "special name" for incorrect usage.