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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not understand ect?

146 replies

GretaGip · 17/02/2024 17:02

It just doesn't make sense.

I'm baffled.

^How^ are people pronouncing it to think this makes sense?

OP posts:
LauderSyme · 18/02/2024 03:41

@Itwasafterallallaboutme if something has been effected by something

Effected is incorrect here and it should be affected, because affect is usually a verb and effect is usually a noun. I googled "affect or effect" to help me explain why I thought this was wrong and got some good, clear explanations.

I think the rest of your explication is broadly correct though.

bradpittsbathwater · 18/02/2024 04:07

One of my friends posted about spag bowl. I'll always love that one.

aramox1 · 18/02/2024 05:56

Some (older! ) people use 'ect' as a joke. It features in a once v popular 1950s book in the voice of a schoolboy who can't spell (nigel molesworth). Maybe that's helped it spread.

shoppingshamed · 18/02/2024 06:37

aramox1 · 18/02/2024 05:56

Some (older! ) people use 'ect' as a joke. It features in a once v popular 1950s book in the voice of a schoolboy who can't spell (nigel molesworth). Maybe that's helped it spread.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that is not the reason that anyone who posts on here writes ect 😂

marshmallowburn · 18/02/2024 07:37

GretaGip · 17/02/2024 17:19

I'm not baffled about what it means, I'm confused how that constriction is derived from the pronunciation.

A couple of posters have enlightened me that some folk may be pronouncing it differently than I do.

So that's all good.

Have not RTFT but its contraction not constriction!!! If nobody else has pointed that out.

FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 18/02/2024 08:30

@Itwasafterallallaboutme I hope your example is correct t as I really struggle with affect/effect and your explanation is the only one I've seen that helps!

It drives me mad that I just cannot get my head around it.

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 10:09

Your incorrect use of grammar 'affected' me.

It had an 'effect' on my toes.

TwelveKeys · 18/02/2024 10:16

The problem with affect and effect is that they can both be nouns and verbs as well! Your affect (noun) is your mood.
A film might affect (verb) your affect.

The effect (noun) of this change is to do xyz...
Doing X can effect (verb) a change in something.

The vast majority of times if it's a verb, the correct word is affect, and if it's a noun it's effect. I don't judge anyone except myself for getting those wrong.

I see "lead" for "led" a lot ("she lead the team") , which is understandable as there are two pronunciations of lead, one of which rhymes with led!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 18/02/2024 10:36

One of my ‘favourites’ was a Mothers’ Day card that said, ‘If Mum’s were flowers, I’d pick you!’

I do still wonder why they thought an apostrophe was needed in Mums, but not in flowers.

Maybe they thought the same as a poster on another forum ages ago, who wrote (after someone - not me!) had corrected him, that the use of apostrophes was such a complicated mystery, no normal person could be expected to understand it.

Which did make me despair at standards of teaching, since these things are perfectly simple as long as they’re explained properly.

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 10:39

TwelveKeys · 18/02/2024 10:16

The problem with affect and effect is that they can both be nouns and verbs as well! Your affect (noun) is your mood.
A film might affect (verb) your affect.

The effect (noun) of this change is to do xyz...
Doing X can effect (verb) a change in something.

The vast majority of times if it's a verb, the correct word is affect, and if it's a noun it's effect. I don't judge anyone except myself for getting those wrong.

I see "lead" for "led" a lot ("she lead the team") , which is understandable as there are two pronunciations of lead, one of which rhymes with led!

Led is correct.

I led you away.

You lead me away.

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 11:38

aramox1 · 18/02/2024 05:56

Some (older! ) people use 'ect' as a joke. It features in a once v popular 1950s book in the voice of a schoolboy who can't spell (nigel molesworth). Maybe that's helped it spread.

Obviously Molesworth

Woz not rite.

You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.

The comedy of Geoffy Willans has absolutely not informed incorrect grammar..

Yoo utter foolz.

unnumber · 18/02/2024 11:54

DeniseSecunda · 18/02/2024 03:15

It's not pronounced et "set" era. In Classical Latin, the "c" is always a hard "c," so it is pronounced et ket era.

Not in English usage. (Or French, most variants of Church Latin etc.)

That ship has long sailed, and there's no reason for us to pronounce things (more nearly) as the ancient Romans did. Would be amusing but not correct.

Kattenburg · 18/02/2024 12:23

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 11:38

Obviously Molesworth

Woz not rite.

You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.

The comedy of Geoffy Willans has absolutely not informed incorrect grammar..

Yoo utter foolz.

'Yoo utter foolz' You got that strate @Tetsuo!
“It hapens very often that parents think they are worred about the progress a boy is making. they do not realise that all boys are numskulls with o branes which is not surprising when you look at the parents really the whole thing goes on and on and there is no stoping it it is a vicious circle.”

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 12:29

It is a vicious cirkel @Kattenburg.

TwelveKeys · 18/02/2024 13:16

Tetsuo · 18/02/2024 10:39

Led is correct.

I led you away.

You lead me away.

Yes - I often see "lead" in place of it, is what I was saying!

On a similar ish note - people saying "substituted for" the wrong way round. (This is not meant as a dig!)

AffIt · 18/02/2024 13:25

The 'lose/loose' one baffles me, as the two words sound completely different in my accent. See also: 'drawer/draw'.

Fewer people now benefit from a classical education - even elementary Greek or Latin in school - so won't be familiar with the root, hence the occasionally bonkers spellings of words like etcetera, quid pro quo and so on.

A friend of mine is a teacher and theorises that much of it is social contagion, caused by people gaining most of their information from unfounded, unedited Internet sources as opposed to actual books (although God knows I've seen some horrible editing errors in books, too).

Gloriosaford · 18/02/2024 13:33

people gaining most of their information from unfounded, unedited Internet sources as opposed to actual books
I agree with this, interacting with others via written communication is very revealing compared to just talking!

Creatureofhabit87 · 18/02/2024 13:36

Because they assume it’s ecetera and not etcetera?

AffIt · 18/02/2024 13:52

@Tetsuo, I do love Molesworth, as any fule kno (autocorrect did NOT enjoy that one! 😄).

x2boys · 18/02/2024 13:55

tumtitum · 17/02/2024 17:13

Am I the only one who opened this thread expecting a thread about treatment resistant depression?! 🤣

Thats the first ring that sprung to my mind but I use to be a mental health nurse

Kattenburg · 18/02/2024 14:04

Or even a viscous one @Tetsuo As any fule nko.

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