Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

by Benjamin Dreyer

“Adverse” means unfavorable or harmful, as in “We are enduring adverse weather.” “Averse” means opposed to, repulsed by, or antipathetic toward, as in “I am averse to olives and capers.” AFFECT/EFFECT The traditional snap differentiation between “affect” and “effect” is that “affect” is a verb (“This martini is so watery, it doesn’t affect me at all”) and “effect” is a noun (“This martini is so watery, it has no effect on me at all”). Which is true as far as it goes. But only that far. Because “affect” is also a noun: “a set of observable manifestations of a subjectively experienced emotion.” One may speak, for instance, of a psychiatrist’s commenting on a traumatized patient’s affect. And “effect” is also a verb, as in “to effect change”—that is, to cause change to happen. Other uses of these words and their variants—as an affected person affects a posh accent; one’s personal effects (the things you’re carrying around on your person); “in effect” in the sense of “virtually”—seem to cause less confusion.