Clearly some changes need to be effected here .

I always regarded this as an infix rather than something completely incorrect, i.e., "another" is transformed into "a-whole-nother" when using "whole" as an infix (or tmesis) to strengthen the meaning. Infixes are rare in English, yes. About the only other infix I can think of off the top of my head is ****in', as in, "abso-****in'-lutely," in which the infix has pretty much the same purpose. One can easily argue that "abso-****in'-lutely" isn't proper English, either, but "a-whole-nother" and "abso-****in'-lutely" are examples of infixes that are used in a relatively consistent manner with the use of infixes in other languages.

let's insure this thread stays on page 1

Some other ones I have come across in the last few minutes are "Cliff Notes" or any variation thereof that is not "CliffsNotes", and "First come, first serve".

I affectively effected a headache in my arsehole somehow by checking on this thread again

affect is 100% a verb, effect is a noun.

People are being confusing saying affect is "mostly" a verb but the noun form is pronounced differently (af-ekt). It refers to someone's outward projection of mood. "His affect has been very sad since his mother died."

Generally true, but you can use "effect" as a verb, as in the sentence "Obama hoped to effect change when he was elected president."

Edited to add that I see this has already been noted.

Untrue. For example, "Upon being released from prison, he was returned his personal affects that were taken from him at the time of his arrest." That's "affect" used as a noun and pronounced in the usual manner, affect

Ah, you dog. I for got about the rare "personal affects" usage.

It's funny how you can be wrong in a grammar nit thread, but in the real world you're almost always going to be right when you get into a grammar argument with some fool.

Eh, "personal affects" is less rare than "affect"

It's "personal effects", or am I being leveled here?

Technically, yes. It should be "he." Though no one would ever say this and you really shouldn't worry about it. Really you shouldn't be worrying about who/whom either. No one outside of a few grammar nits will even notice your correct usage, and lots of people will notice how awkward you sound.

No. "Who" is a predicate nominative in that sentence.

well, i defer to you on this one. i'm out of my element here.

Ha! That reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Wheel of Fortune. The puzzle was First Come First Served and of course the blocks were there for easy spelling/pronunciation.

When the contestant asked to solve the puzzle, it was at something like

_ _ R S T
C _ M E
_ _ R S T
S E R _ E _

So it was clear there was a letter after the second E in Served. But the contestant goes "First come, first serve!" and starts clapping, and some of the audience starts clapping. Sajak stops and goes "Can you say that again slowly please?" and he goes "Fiiirst... come... fiiirst... seerrrve"

And Sajak shakes his head sorry and it goes to the next lady and she just goes "first come first served lol x thx"

Joker, that one is pretty good, but I saw one which I think is better, imo. The category was "Clue", where you get to answer a question about the puzzle after you solve it. I'm fairly certain the puzzle was mostly solved or completely solved on the board. Regardless, there was no doubt that the answer was:

WORLD'S LARGEST DESERT


the woman of course solved it as "world's largest dessert!"

I haven't been able to find a clip of it on youtube unfortunately.

I bet she was fat.

Can somebody clarify your thoughts on valuation/evaluate/evaluation?

I consider a valuation an assessment of something. Noun.
I consider evaluate the act of assessing. Verb.
So what is an evaluation, really? This is way more common than valuation, but it seems superfluous to me.

Like wouldn't you just say "I'm going to evaluate your company this week, then provide you with the valuation, in the form of a 12-page report."

From a quick google, pertaining to the appraisal of jewellery. Apparently this came up in a legal matter and clarification was needed.

EVALUATION:
The process of identification; establishing what something is; to distinguish one thing from another; to determine the FACTS about something; physical characteristics, uniquiness, rarity; what makes something special, notable, unique, generic etc.

VALUATION:
The estimation of somehting's worth; especially, a process carried out by a professional appraiser. The judgement of the marketable, or monetary worth of something, through the active process of research and analysis. The calculated act of assigning a monetary value to somethng.

EXAMPLE:
Evaluating Pearls: The process of identigication: shape, size, body color, qulaity and thickness of nacre, luster and overtone (as applicable).

Valuating Pearls: Determination of the market worth, in dollars or other trade sequence ; for insutrance, trade, donation value, etc.; monetary worth in terms of appropriate market price, relative to comparable quality.

I actually have a question for the nits itt. I was in a competitive speaking event and gave my presentation to an older lady. The convention is to address the judge as "Madam Speaker". When I finished the speech, she announced to me that I had mispronounced madam and had called her a madam as in a women who runs a brothel. It's not strictly grammar related, but is there a difference between the pronunciations?

maddum

mah-DAHM

I'll keep that in mind next time

My first thought was what Daryn said but I don't think I've heard of this distinction. For one they basically mean the same thing. If you say "madam speaker" you are calling her madam because she is in charge. You call a madam a madam because she is in charge of the brothel.

Also, I feel like both are pronounced the same way in the media. That certainly doesn't qualify as proof in this thread, but here are three clips. In the first two, Bush and Obama refer to Pelosi as "Madam Speaker", in the last they are talking about the DC madam on NBC news. Yes, I am using a clip of George W. Bush to make a grammar point.

Bush (1:35)

Obama (2:11)

NBC News (start of clip)

no way. I read 50+ medical charts a day that all refer to the patient's affect.
hmmmmmm

It's definitely 100% personal effects, not affects.

Also, this:

- doesn't really make sense. It's still the same word, even though it's pronounced differently, right? It's like if you "frequent" a bar. As a verb, this word is traditionally pronounced fre-QUENT, with the emphasis on the second syllable (now barely anyone says it this way). But I'd still consider it the same word as frequent, the adjective.