The Grammar Cop is despondent seeing these same instances of confusion over and over again. But she is always on guard, and vows to bring them to the fore as often as possible!

From local weekly, THE SUBURBAN: “…because we believe that women everywhere can affect positive change given the proper tools.”  The verb should be effect. The Grammar Cop has addressed this error before. As a matter of fact, why go to great lengths to say all this anew? Here is a rerun of Friday Follies #15 – because I still see the same mistakes!

• Affect – effect: The rain affected their tennis match. The effect of the rain on their tennis match was unfortunate – it was cancelled. Naturally! You can’t run and slip on the wet court and then sue the USTA. Well, you can, but it wouldn’t necessarily effect (bring about) a win in a court of law. Here’s more, culled from Friday Follies #17: Again in The Suburban…“This initiative has an unrivalled [sic – Canadian spelling] record for choosing honorees who display the courage, character and conscience that effects the positive change our society needs.”  The problem is the the word “effects.” What’s wrong with it? It’s singular. But it should be plural, because the subject of it is plural: “courage, character and conscience” – three items. So the verb should be plural in order to be in agreement. Other than that, I must give credit to the writer for her correct use of “effect” as opposed to “affect.”
• Incredulous – incredible: She was incredulous regarding the cancelled tennis match! Such things rarely happened, she found it rather incredible! I mean, she took the day off work especially for this. Grrrr! Incredulous describes a person who is skeptical, disbelieving. Incredible describes something that is amazing, unbelievable!
• Reign – rein – rain: Okay, the damn rain just wasn’t stopping! If only they could rein it in, make it stop! Wetness reigned over all, it was King of the Court today. (Sob!)
• Infer – imply: From the wet puddles on the court, she inferred that it was raining. She was really smart that way. Why, even back in Kindergarten, her teacher implied that she was a genius, telling her mother that Suzie could count to ten without a glitch.

Today’s rehash has been brought to you by the letters G and C – for Grammar Cop. See you next week!