affect/effect

I am here at work and my co-worker (Shay) walks up to me and asks, "Say you finish that yogurt.." If you know my co-workers you would know they are moochers and alway just want a bite of whatever you are eating. Not this time! He surprised me with a good question. "If you finish the yogurt, do you say, "I ate or eaten the yogurt? Is aten a word?" I knew just what to do. I Googled it.

""Ate" is the simple past tense, You'd say "I ate the apple".

"Eaten" is a past participle and is used in conjunction with another word to form a different type of past tense -- eg "I had eaten the apple" (past perfect" or "I have eaten the apple" (present perfect).

The past participle (in this case, "eaten") is also used in passive forms, eg "The apple was eaten by me". "

I thought about this the other day when writing a text. Did I say affect or effect? I dunno. So I googled it!

"The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: “effect.” This too can be two different words. The more common one is a noun: “When I left the stove on, the effect was that the house filled with smoke.” When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it.

The less common is a verb meaning “to create”: “I’m trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets.” No wonder people are confused. Note especially that the proper expression is not “take affect” but “take effect”—become effective. Hey, nobody ever said English was logical: just memorize it and get on with your life.

The stuff in your purse? Your personal effects. "

credit here

Its so fun because the other day the same co-worker asked "Whats 9 times 4?" I did the finger thing where you put down your 4th finger to find the answer "36". He had no idea how to do that. Now, he does.

Then this morning he was walking around singing the "Apples and Bananas" song. Had no idea why he changed the sound each time. I told him it was because of the vowels. A, E, I, O, U. Thats why you change the sound each verse. Apparently his teacher never told him that. they just sang the song. Poor kid.

Learn something new every day.