On Thu, 28 Jul 2005, Steve Hay wrote: > Nicholas Clark wrote: > > >On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 11:23:45AM +0100, Steve Hay wrote: > > > >>I didn't think it was confusing, but that be a minority opinion. > >> > > > >Well, it's erudite, eloquent English written by someone with good vocabulary. > >(Did tchrist write it?) > > > >However it seems that > > > >1: If you aren't native speaker, or don't notice these sort of differences, > > you won't see anything wrong > >2: If you notice these differences but don't know the real nitty gritty > > subtleties, you think that there is something wrong. > > (I certainly did at first) > >3: Only if you already know the subtly do you think it's fine. > > (but you might need to double take) > > > >Hence my suggestion to avoid the problem by not using the verb "effect", > >even when it's correct. > > > Fair enough, I guess, but what about all the other places where these > words are used? > > C:\p5p\bleadperl\pod>grep -i effect *.pod | wc -l > 310 > > Why bother changing it in 2 places when there are at least 308 other > places in pod/ alone?
IMHO, to effect a change that affects something isn't erudite at all (though I think erudite is). Please, let's leave perfectly good English alone. Regards, Brad
