Slippery Words

I was talking with someone today about words. Language changes over time. So many words that were common when I was young are no longer used. So many new words are out there.

There are words that I have to stop and think about before using. These are some of the ones that can be confusing.

affect                  to change or make a difference to a result;
effect                  to bring about a result

born                  having started life
borne                carried

desert                    a waterless, empty area; to abandon someone
dessert                  the sweet course of a meal

practice                 the use of an idea or method; the work or business of a doctor, dentist,
practise                 to do something repeatedly to gain skill; to do something regularly

From Oxford Dictionaries

In writing  myself and reading others I have noticed that we can get these wrong. Affect and effect are particularly difficult. Usually, affect is a verb and effect is a noun, and they’re used when talking about the results or consequences of particular actions.

The difference between affect and effect is so slippery that people have started using “impact” as a verb instead. Don’t be one of them! Another trick is to remember that affect comes first alphabetically, and an action (to affect) has to occur before you can have a result (an effect)          from FluentU.

So affect is something we do and effect is what happens after we do it.

From what I have seen no one gets practise and practice. Word Press thinks that the former is not a word. I had to add it to my dictionary.

There is a long list on the Oxford site. What words bug you?